How Rakuten and the Golf Drones means the Days of the Caddy are Numbered

 Drone deliveries on golf courses are now a thing in Japan.

This as Japanese firm Rakuten is testing the idea of delivering refreshments to golfers out on the green as reported in the article “‘Fore! Beers please.’ Golfers in Japan will soon get drinks delivered by drone”, published March 28, 2016 By Lulu Chang, Digitaltrends.

No one is quite sure which golf courses in Japan will be used to test out this form of drone delivery. However, good candidates are the golf courses in the eastern part of eastern Tokyo near the University of Chiba.

Whenever this testing it taking place, NOT in the US of A, where Amazon is lobbying Washington like crazy just to get a slice of the Drone Deliver game as noted in the article “Here's How Amazon Is Fighting for U.S. Drone Deliveries”, published MARCH 21, 2016 by Hilary Brueck, Fortune.

Still, to their credit, they've released an updated version of their deliver drones in November 2015 that look much uglier but are a lot more efficient as noted in my blog article entitled “Amazon Prime Air new Hybrid Drone - How VTOL Drone Design is best for Commercial Drone delivery services”, so they're not behind in term of technology

However, it'll be 2017 before the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) will allow commercial drones flights.

To hasten the decision of the FAA, Google, Amazon and other silicon Valley Tech titans have teamed up to develop standards for a ATC (Air Traffic Control System) as detailed in my blog article entitled “@NASA Air Traffic Control System – Why @Google, @Amazon and @Verizonwireless want an ATC ahead of FAA's New Guidelines in 2016”. 

So comparison with Amazon aside, how does Rakuten drone delivery of munchies onto the golf course work?

Rakuten and the Golf Drones - The Days of the Caddy are Numbered as Drones will replace them

Japanese firm Rakuten, however, is not as overly ambitious as Amazon. The idea is that golfer can place an order for anything using their smartphones and a companion app.

The quadcopter drone, which are Mini Surveyor drone developed by the Autonomous Control Systems Laboratory as reported in the article “Delivery drone flies drinks and balls to golfers in Japan”, published 28 March 2016 by Nick Summers, Engadget can carry replacement golf balls and even refreshment.

Once confirmed, these are then whisked via a quadcopter drone once the order has been confirmed, making the deliver in much the same way a caddy would deliver these items.

Suddenly, I realized, pizza delivery boys aren't the only persons whose jobs are in danger if the Domino's DRU (Dominoes Robotic Unit) begins rolling out as noted in my blog article entitled “How Marathon Robotics Dominoes Robotic Unit will replace Pizza Delivery in New Zealand”.

If this becomes a thing on golf courses, soon all college students who caddy to make end meet will have to find other means of making an extra buck, especially as fast food restaurants will be manned by robots as prophesied in my blog article entitled “Fast Food Robot taking over by 2017 - How Drones like Amazon and PrimeAir and not Humanoid Robots will be the first Robots by 2015”. 

Well, it' nothing new really as I've seen this before in China with cake deliveries as far back as 2013 as noted in my blog article entitled “SF Express Drones in China Deliver Cake and Zookal Drones deliver Rental Textbooks”.

Deutsche Post aka DHL has been making regular deliveries to the island of Juist in Germany since September 2014 as reported in my blog article entitled “DHL Parcelcopters make deliveries to Juist off Germany’s coast – Why Progress of Drones in West slower than in the East for same-day delivery”.

Closer to Japan, Singapore’s Postal Service, SingPost in collaboration with IDS (Infocomm Development Authority) of Singapore had tested the delivery of Postal Mail via Drone since October 2015 as noted in my blog article entitled “SingPost Postal Package Delivery Drones - Why Postal Corporation of Jamaica Mini-Drone Airports for Jamaica”. 

If this becomes widespread in Japan, the world is next. The Days of the caddy are at an end as we send in the Drones.