This profession is considered no less socially important for the simple reason that delivery services are a critical component of business, it is sales, the quality of which can determine the success of the entire enterprise. The Chinese delivery service has developed and continues to develop at a tremendous pace, it involves a huge number of young active population, in delivery there are good salaries and the same social guarantees as in any other profession. And just like in Russia, more and more graduated specialists are leaving to become couriers. Maybe it is time for adult societies to set aside their prejudices, look at the world with an adult and mature eye and recognize that a courier in the modern world is no less important than an IT specialist or a brand manager.
And with the increasing technological sophistication of the modern world order, the courier will become a profession that requires specialized knowledge and skills, because even now a delivery courier and a bpla operator in some, albeit still quite rare cases, are one and the same thing. Such a bold statement is based on facts, to which we will allow ourselves to draw your attention. Shenzhen, the electronic capital of China, is in the focus and at the forefront of the service's development. Meituan, the most powerful delivery resource (primarily ready-to-eat food), was one of the first companies to go beyond the test lab spaces into the urban environment and in the spring of 2022 announced recruitment for the delivery drone operator profession. Here we need to digress and explain that in China, people who are busy all day at work hardly ever cook at home. With the incredible number of catering establishments that are within walking distance literally all over China, there is simply no need to. And food ordered in a family cafe or restaurant will be as delicious as if it was cooked by your favorite grandmother, and just as cheap. That's why at noon, when the whole of China, abandoning absolutely all activities, indulges in their favorite business - lunch, on the streets of cities you can meet only food delivery couriers, in most cases wearing yellow outfit with the inscription "Meituan". And any motorist in China will give way to "kuaidi" (express delivery), because speed is their livelihood, and making money is treated with respect in China.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Meituan was the first to invest in such an exotic type of delivery and began inviting its courier drivers to try their hand as UAV operators. According to Li Chunlin, deputy director of the "National Development and Reform Commission", "the spillover from low-productivity industries to high-productivity industries is already a common phenomenon". It is logical that technological progress, contributing to the modernization of industry, leads not only to the elimination of obsolete professions, but also to the emergence of new ones. And at the moment in China there are a million (!) vacancies for bpla pilots - a new profession for mastering low-altitude flights. According to statistics, by the end of 2023, the industry has registered 1.267 million bplas and this is 32.2% more than at the end of the previous year. A total of almost 200 thousand pilot licenses have been issued and the annual growth rate is currently 27%.
This data is certainly impressive, but the industry is working ahead of the curve. For now, the much sought-after profession of express delivery courier is in no danger. Because technically, drone delivery is still only an attraction for tourists and bloggers. But nevertheless, some companies already offer such entertainment. Recently, the Chinese media has been actively describing the career path of a young man named Luo Sikun from an ordinary Meituan delivery driver to a drone delivery operator. At the moment, he is busy developing routes for the delivery of essentials along the Great Wall of China. Of course, this example was not chosen by chance - it combines the name of the largest delivery service and the main symbol of the country. Luo started his working life as a courier, earned a bachelor's degree, was always interested in mechanics and dreamed of finding a job where his hobbies would be in demand. "I never thought I would make my first ascent of the Great Wall of China as part of a team launching an unmanned express delivery route there," was Luo's comment on his success in commercials. The Great Wall of China, China's most visited landmark, is just the perfect subject for such commercials. The Badaling (八达岭) section, which is set aside for tourist climbing, has a height difference of 200 meters , it is an open space that is exposed to all types of precipitation and blown by strong winds. Therefore, the development of delivery routes in this place is a really complex process that requires a virtuoso skill of controlling a UAV and perfectly demonstrates all its capabilities. But if someone thinks that the drone can deliver, for example, urgently needed medicine to a person right into his hands, it is not so. The drone can still land only in a specially equipped place, which must have a mechanism for accepting and separating the cargo (or attachment), and delivery directly into the hands is impossible for safety reasons. And making an autonomous flying drone for cooperation with living people absolutely safe is still an unsolvable task.
But the industry needs to develop, and that is why the low-altitude flight industry has gone down the path of robotization. There are two fundamentally different concepts for the development of unmanned systems, truly unmanned, that is, not when a human operator controls remotely, but working without human participation at all. The first concept is when there is an on-board computer on board the robot drone, which makes a decision on movement based on data from video camera sensors, lasers (lidars), ultrasonic sensors. That is, the movement is based on the so-called "machine vision" technologies - these are the sensors listed above plus a machine learning program, when initially a person must "explain" to the computer what he sees, what kind of obstacle it is - permanent or temporary. That is, the first concept is a fully autonomous robot that carries all its "brains" inside itself. The second concept is a robot that can work only in the conditions of the corresponding information environment or ecosystem. That is, if we are talking about a city, then the "brains" are not on board the moving robot, but outside it - in the city, and sensors and sensors are embedded in the city - in the streets, in houses, in obstacles and, accordingly, the control computer is also not in the robot, but in the city. That is, the robot is controlled as if by the city. Both concepts seem equally promising, but both require, of course, a very long implementation. That is, in the first case we have to "teach" the robot all conceivable situations, and for the second case it is necessary to practically rebuild cities, and ideally to build cities anew, when they will be initially "customized" for autonomous robots. Nevertheless, even today in Shenzhen you can already see and even use a full-fledged autonomous robot - a flying delivery drone, such entertainment is offered by KFC. The delivery drone still flies along the only route: restaurant - kiosk in the park, and it can only be called a robot with a big stretch.
But progress, fortunately, does not stand still. And while "civilized countries", looking around in horror at the buzzing in the air, introduce bans on flying UAVs in the city and read the news about drone attacks, Chinese pioneers are assembling drones in labor lessons and then launching them in their backyards under the supervision of grandparents. And almost certainly peaceful drones will become part of their equally adult lives.
