Where Matternet is going, it doesn’t need roads. But the people
there need food and medicine. And these drones can bring it to
them. Nearly one billion people in rural areas live without
access to all-season roads–meaning a large portion of the
world’s population can’t get medication, food, and other
supplies when they need them. The Matternet, a concept created
by a group of students in this summer’s class at Singularity
University, aims to leapfrog road-based transportation
altogether with a network of electric autonomous aerial vehicles
(AAVs) in the developing world that transports supplies and
people from place to place. Think of it as the Jetsons meets
Mother Theresa. The Matternet concept was designed by a motley
crew of entrepreneurs, engineers, hackers, and more–all of whom
were challenged during Singularity University to solve a big
problem related to world poverty (other groups focused on space,
energy, education, security, and global health). The team
quickly came across the problem of transportin