Zipline's aircraft tend to fly the same trajectories over and over again, whatever's lowest energy, fastest, or avoids flying over populated areas unnecessarily. The vehicle isn't really designed to fly repeated grid patterns. We're also hesitant to intentionally collect aerial photography. It isn't necessary for our core business of efficiently delivering medical supplies, and could negatively impact the perceived utility of our system.

You should check out Saildrone. They make autonomous boats for collecting ocean science. https://www.saildrone.com/

I seem to be pretty good at drilling down into complex problems and finding relatively simple solutions. I am also pretty good at pushing back on things when they don't pass my smell test, and am willing to crack eggs as needed. Those are skills I practiced quite a bit in my solar car racing days. It's the sort of thing that many engineers struggle with, and are often afraid to do. In a good organization, though, it's the sort of behavior that others respect and appreciate. It helps to have an optimistic, easy going attitude.