Not surprising
Wheelchair & buggy users could tell you how awful footpaths can be. That's an immediate limiting factor to any drone delivery service. As is range - if this thing trundles along at walking pace and contains 1 or 2 packages, and requires recharging every round trip or so then the logistics get stupid. How many drones do you need to replace one delivery driver who might have a 20 mile delivery area?
But on top of that people live in houses, flats, behind gates, up steps and all the rest. Even if a person gets a notification this drone is outside, it would be absolutely useless if "outside" means further away than a human could get, e.g. sitting at the bottom of a block of flats instead of knocking on your door.
It also doesn't account for thieves and griefers who'll be more than happy to kick the robots over, stick gum or a bag over their sensors, bust them open for their contents and so forth. Every time that happens, someone has to go out in the van and recover the damned thing.
So yeah. Maybe it could work in a campus or something where the environment is controlled. Doesn't seem viable in the wide world.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
