Autonomous drone delivery in a Zip (Interview)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

We’re joined by Zipline cofounder / CTO, Keenan Wyrobek. Zipline is on a mission to build the world’s first logistics system that serves all people equally via their fleet of autonomous drones that started in Africa delivering medical supplies and can now deliver packages (up to 8 lbs) directly to your door. They’ve solved a lot of gnarly technical and regulatory challenges along the way. We go deep with Keenan. We hope you’ll find this one fascinating.

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Sponsors:

• Tiger Data – Postgres for Developers, devices, and agents The data platform trusted by hundreds of thousands from IoT to Web3 to AI and more.
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Featuring:

• Keenan Wyrobek – LinkedIn, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Zipline drone delivery & logistics

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Chapter

1. Welcome to The Changelog (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Tiger Data (00:01:02)

https://www.tigerdata.com

3. Start the show! (00:02:42)

4. It all starts in Rwanda (00:03:46)

5. From medical to consumer (00:06:57)

6. Env concerns (00:09:13)

7. Drone design (00:10:07)

8. Space inspiration (00:12:33)

9. Drones' OS (00:13:59)

10. Software updates (00:15:27)

11. Novel problems (00:17:13)

12. The drone cloud (00:19:36)

13. Sponsor: Depot (00:21:55)

https://depot.dev

14. Regulations (00:24:45)

15. Observability (00:37:42)

16. Logging a tornado (00:40:16)

17. Wind limits (00:41:57)

18. That wing! (00:43:37)

19. Range anxiety (00:45:19)

20. Range vs cost (00:47:26)

21. Sponsor: Augment Code (00:49:40)

https://www.augmentcode.com

22. Sponsor: Framer (00:52:35)

https://www.framer.com/design/

23. Supporting the UX (00:53:49)

24. Integrations (00:56:11)

25. Fun features (00:57:45)

26. All day / night (01:00:23)

27. Zip at scale (01:04:34)

28. Heavier packages (01:09:22)

29. Competition (01:11:48)

30. What's next (01:12:47)

31. Next city (Omaha!) (01:13:36)

32. Big tech problems (01:14:47)

33. Manual override (01:17:47)

34. The tech stack (01:22:35)

35. Open orchestration (01:25:13)

36. Wrapping up (01:31:48)

37. Closing thoughts (01:32:46)