![]() It was Australian startup Flirtey that made the first federally approved drone delivery a quadcopter flew just over six minutes roundtrip to deliver medicine in Virginia. Yet the wait continues.Īs for gifts being delivered by drone during the current busy holiday shopping season, forget about it.ĭrone package deliveries started to take off-literally-on July 17, 2015, more than one and a half years after Amazon’s initial drone announcement. And since the COVID pandemic began, demand for contactless delivery has only increased-including for medical supplies. The technology is ready to go, drone companies say. Zipline, Google parent Alphabet, UPS, and Amazon have made thousands of flights. airspace regulation has, apart from small tests, kept most drones grounded. Eight years after Jeff Bezos stunned the world by announcing that Amazon shoppers would eventually get their packages delivered by drone a mere 30 minutes after ordering, U.S. For now, Zipline is flying its drones in Pea Ridge only during good weather.Ĭompanies seeking federal approval for drone deliveries have faced major turbulence. And Britton tells me the drone-despite being able to withstand rain along with high winds and extreme temperatures-is grounded. ![]() The screen shows the routes of the project’s first deliveries, which began in mid-November to a handful of Walmart employees. “Our very first customer is right there,” says Evan Britton, flight operations lead for Zipline, the drone company overseeing the distribution site for Walmart, pointing to a wall monitor. When it reaches the intended customer’s home, the drone is supposed to hover, open a door in its fuselage, and drop a blue box tethered to a parachute so it can glide gently to the ground. A drone pilot is running through a flight check for one of the aircraft, which resembles an airplane, but with only an 11-foot wingspan. There’s a mini airport in that location’s back parking lot, where a fleet of five drones will take off and land, ferrying prescription pills, vitamins, and COVID-19 tests to customers up to 50 miles away. It pointed out that its top delivery item in one location was Hamburger Helper.Behind its store in tiny Pea Ridge, Ark., Walmart is experimenting with the future. Although the number of stores fulfilling drone deliveries will rise to just 37 (Walmart already has a few drone delivery stores near its headquarters), the expanded plan represents a major rollout.Ĭustomer orders will be packaged at the stores, then flown by a remote pilot to a front yard or driveway, where the package will be lowered to the ground using a cable.Īlthough the early pilot projects primarily delivered household essentials and at-home Covid-19 test kits, Walmart said its research indicated that customers didn’t consider drone delivery to be for emergencies only. It is betting that its massive advantage in physical stores – more than 4,700, with more than nine in 10 Americans living within 10 miles of an outlet – will give it a competitive edge. The retail behemoth is in a race to develop drone deliveries with other major e-commerce giants, including Amazon. The company said it will offer up to 100,000 different products from a variety of categories, from detergent to batteries to snacks. Many cities around the world now allow robot delivery vehicles – guided by human handlers – to use sidewalks to deliver food and supplies as an example of “last-mile logistics”, mostly for fresh food delivery, but Walmart’s drone project significantly expands the range of products that could be dropped by air. ![]() Some observers have argued that drone delivery could represent a more energy-efficient method of home delivery over road vehicles powered by fossil fuel, as well as potentially reducing urban air pollution. The company did not specify how a vastly increased number of drones would negotiate airspace concerns or potential conflicts with other operators, nor how the machines would be powered. Walmart said it would charge $3.99 per delivery, with a weight limit of up to 10lb, according to the principle that “if it fits safely it flies”. Parts of Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia could be on the receiving end of more than 1m packages by drone annually, the firm predicted.
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