Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Unmanned TacoCopter Will Deliver Your Tacos | The Daily Meal
Unmanned TacoCopter Will Deliver Your Tacos
Mar 23, 2012 @ 12:23 PM
We guess a delivery car or bicyclist was too pedestrian for tech folks; over in San Francisco, something called TacoCopter has popped up, delivering online orders of tacos via helicopter — an unmaned, robotic one, to be exact.
According to the bare bones web site, all you have to do is place your order on your iPhone, tap away, and await the TacoCopter.
Unfortunately, it's only available in the San Francisco Bay Area, but the little icon on the bottom right indicated a LobsterCopter might just be in the works, lobsters being the "Taco of the East!" We're praying it's for lobster rolls, but no word yet on whether any of this is true (or if the tacos are any good).
Update: Good news — Dustin Boyer, co-founder of TacoCopter, claims that the TacoCopter really does exist. Over on social networking site Quora, he says, "Yes, we're definitely real :) There are a number of technical and legal hurdles that our team is working through. If you're interested in pushing the boundaries of robotics and food please email jobs@tacocopter.com."
Update: Bad news — Star Simpson, co-founder of TacoCopter, told Wired that the TacoCopter is just "a vision." FAA regulations won't allow such a magical machine to be used, so Simpson, Boyer, and company just created the site to keep the idea alive.
"We're in a holding pattern until the FAA changes regulations on commercial drones in cities. Even then, there are state and local laws to contend with. Until laws catch up with (delicious) technology, this is a just for fun thing with our friends," Boyer told us in an email. "We have a vision of the future where all foods, not just tacos, can be delivered via deadly flying robots."
Wired reports that if a TacoCopter actually does become reality, those who entered their email in the TacoCopter site will be notified. In the meantime, they will not be selling our emails to spam companies. Good news.
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12-year-old Tom Schaar lands first ever 1080! Way to go lil dude! via ESPN
A 12-year-old boy added a new page to the history books of skateboarding this week, pulling off the first 1080, a three-rotation aerial maneuver that has eluded the world's best for the past half-decade. At 4:11 p.m. Monday, Tom Schaar, after just a handful of attempts, landed the groundbreaking trick while skating the MegaRamp at Woodward West action sports camp in Tehachapi, Calif. "It was the hardest trick I've ever done, but it was easier than I thought," said Schaar on Friday. "He did it on his fifth try," his father, Nick Schaar, told ESPN.com in a phone interview. "He warmed up with 10 gay twists [a fakie to forward mute-grab 360], half a dozen 720s, and I think he threw a 900 in there. Then he did the 1080 on his fifth try. Then he went back and did it again the next day." "Tom's a little giant and a spinning machine," says defending X Games Big Air gold medalist Bob Burnquist, 35. "Amazing. I look forward to learning a lot from him in the future. All eyes on Tom!"
