In a recent survey, Clutch discovered that 39% of shoppers surveyed weren’t fazed if their packages were delivered or not delivered by a drone. 36% of people said they were more likely to order online if the package was delivered by a drone.
Drones have been delivering everything from life-saving medicine to coffee for some time now, but a Seattle company hopes to add cannabis to the list by using drones to deliver it directly to dispensaries.
GRN Holdings announced the move publicly in December when it signed a letter of intent to purchase drones for cannabis delivery.
While drone delivery is just taking off, delivering everything from coffee to medicine, IBM is taking steps to prevent drones from stealing packages from you. The system uses an internet of things device in combination with the IBM blockchain, to keep the packages in the right hands.
A new IMechE poll has found that only 23% of adults living in the United Kingdom support deliveries by drones. This was highlighted in a report titled: Public Perception: Drones. The surprisingly low level of support comes from concerns that include package theft and accidents.
The French Postal Service has started to use drones to deliver parcels to remote Alpine villages. A subsidiary of La Poste, DPD states that delivering packages by drone is more reliable, quicker, and safer than driving a van up a narrow mountain road in the winter when these roads are often icy or blocked by snow.
This morning the Wall Street Journal has a detailed article about deliveries by drone. They take a closer look at Amazon, Wing Aviation and Uber Technologies. For some reason, UPS with their Matternet drones are not getting that same amount of attention in this article, even though they recently were awarded a Part 135 certification by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Today, the NPR published a great article about drone deliveries that will soon take off. It talks about the drone deliveries that are taking place at the WakeMed Hospital Campus in partnership with UPS Flight Forward, using Matternet drones in Raleigh, NC. UPS recently was awarded a Part 135 certification from the FAA and the testing takes place as part of the UAS Integration Pilot Program. More testing with drone deliveries is taking place in Christiansburg, VA where Walgreens partners with FedEx and Wing Aviation.
UPS has received FAA approval for drone deliveries in the US through a Part 135 certification. The logistics company is now allowed to fly drones carrying more than 55 lbs, fly drones at night, and fly them beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS).
Yates Electrospace Corporation has released its Silent Arrow tactical resupply drone made to carry over 1,600 pounds to soldiers and first responders. The drone folds into itself for easy transport and a minimum set-up time required.
Drone delivery company Flirtey has released its new delivery drone and drone station at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) present. The new drone system brings improvements to Flirtey‘s already active drone delivery system.
Fast-food giant KFC is delivering its finger-licking good chicken by an autonomous drone system. KFC has teamed up with Chinese tech company, Antwork to bring drone delivery to the people of China. Drone delivery in China is nothing new with various companies already delivering food.
Swedish company Everdrone has completed the first autonomous drone delivery between two hospitals in Gothenburg, Sweden. The delivery drone transported a medical payload a distance of 4.4 km using onboard sensors and limited GPS.
Uber Air has completed its first high-density urban food delivery by drone in partnership with ModalAI. The collaboration saw Uber Air’s drone successfully fly food from a pick-up location to a pre-determined drop-off location where a courier would be waiting in the case of a real delivery.
Google’s Wing Aviation already has Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval. Amazon is seeking it. And, now UPS Flight Forward, a subsidiary of the delivery giant is also seeking government approval to start an advanced drone delivery service. The delivery company plans to use an extensive network of commercial drones to fly over crowded areas, at night, and beyond-line-of-sight (BVLOS). UPS created the new subsidiary, UPS Flight Forward to oversee the drone delivery operations.
Drones have been flying for the last century, but delivery drones from Amazon have recently come to life. Amazon wants to deliver your packages by drone, lowering costs, and speeding up deliveries. Amazon continues to invest heavily in its delivery drone project, creating prototypes and testing deliveries in multiple locations.
Drones aren’t new, but delivery drones are, like the one created by Google’s Wing Aviation. Wing Aviation is taking drone deliveries head-on in Australia, Finland, and the US and is delivering goods right now by drone. As Wing Aviation and similar companies continue to invest in drones, drone delivery will become the next big thing for the commercial drone world.
A Canadian drone company just finished testing if it was possible to deliver an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) faster by drone than by ambulance. And the answer is, yes. Drone Delivery Canada showed that a drone can deliver an AED faster than traditional transportation can. Every time they simulated an emergency situation, the drone arrived on site ahead of the response team in the ambulance.
Amazon delivery drones might be used to spy on your home. An Amazon patent filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on June 12, 2015, and granted June 4 of this year, indicates that the e-commerce giant is planning to use its network of drones to form a neighborhood watch system and keep an eye on your home. The company calls it “surveillance as a service” and it would have its delivery drones record footage of your home when they are out delivering packages.
With their ride-sharing service, Uber has transformed the way people get from one place to another. Now the company is hoping to revolutionize the way people get their food as well. Last week the company announced plans to start testing the first ever commercial application of food delivery by drone in high-density urban areas in the US. As readers of DroneDJ will know Uber is far from the only company looking to commercialize deliveries by drone. Other competitors in the drone delivery space, of course, are Amazon, Google’s Wing Aviation, UPS, Matternet, and Zipline to name a few.
In partnership with UPS, a hospital in North Carolina is pioneering a drone delivery program to speed up the delivery of critical medical samples across the WakeMed hospital campus. Medical samples are put in a small cooler that is carried by the drone to a lab roughly 3/4 of a mile away. It takes the unmanned aircraft less than four minutes to make the delivery. On foot, the trip takes about 45 minutes.
Today, Zipline the San Francisco based drone manufacturer and the logistical services company, launched a program in Ghana to deliver medical supplies by drone. In partnership with the government of the West African country, Zipline will fly 30 drones from four distribution centers to deliver medical supplies, such as vaccines, blood, and medication to 2,000 healthcare facilities across the country on a daily basis. Zipline also confirmed that it is looking to expand their services to other countries and to take their delivery service by drone from testing-phase to live-deliveries in the U.S., sometime this summer.
Google’s Wing Aviation receives the first FAA approval for a drone delivery service in the US. We already reported on this two weeks ago, saying that it would likely be Wing Aviation that would receive the first approval for a delivery service by drone. Today, the commercial drone operator received important government approval to operate as an airline, which gives it the legal authority to deliver products by drone to real customers. The company plans to start routine deliveries by drone in two rural communities in Virginia within the next few months.
Today, Google parent Alphabet Inc’s, Wing made its first delivery by drone in Cranberry, Australia after receiving approval from the country’s Civil Aviation Authority. Initially, the drone delivery service will only be available to 100 eligible homes in Grace, Palmerston, and Franklin. Later it will be slowly expanded to other customers in Harrison and Gungahlin.
Back in December 2013, Jeff Bezos famously announced on ’60 Minutes’ that deliveries by drone would be routine by 2018. And, even though that scenario hasn’t quite panned out a lot of progress has been made in the drone industry, including deliveries by drone. Just see what there are doing in North Carolina if you want any proof. Amazon, however, has been one of the most active companies to file for drone-related patents. One of which includes an “airborne fulfillment center” (AFC) such as an airship or blimp that would float around and from which drones would complete the last mile delivery. Well, a computer-generated video was circulated online that shows just what such a drone future according to Amazon might look like. It includes a massive Amazon blimp. Check this out.