Future of Package Delivery is Underground
Back in 2016, after reading Peter Thiel’s Zero to One, I came up with the idea of the Underground Package Delivery System. At first, it would connect just distribution centers. Then we gonna have local dropbox stations. Like Amazon Lockers. Ultimately: everyone will have dropbox in their homes. You order something on amazon, the worker machine sends this to you through underground pipes, you get a notification, open dropbox which is next to your closet…and it’s there! Packages will travel like internet packets.
When I shared this idea for the first time with my friends, everyone was laughing and told me that it is IMPOSSIBLE! Only a few months later, Amazon was granted a patent for that idea.
I recently discussed this idea with one friend and decided to re-research it. It looks like a company from the UK (Magway) is working on it! Another company, Mole Solutions, has even built a 344-foot prototype. They also created an awesome video with an overview of the idea:
This is another video outlining the vision:
Are underground delivery systems realistic options for moving packages quickly?
Magway estimates that the cost of building infrastructure for underground package delivery would be around 6 Million Dollars per mile. This is not bad! Compare this with urban rail cost per mile being up to 1 Billion Dollars (source)!
I know that the majority of people see the future in drones, but…do you really want to have the entire sky polluted with packages?
There is one man, who believes in tunnels. You know who that is ;) Hint.
Update (2022): there is a company PIPEDREAM based in Austin. They are building an underground delivery tunnel prototype in the USA! Check out this Twitter thread for details and their website.
