Drone deliveries: Alphabet’s Wings are coming to Dallas this week


The Wing division of Alphabet, parent company of Google, began delivering small parcels not exceeding 1.5 kg (within a 10 km radius) to Australia in 2019 before attacking the American market a few months later.

After having delivered more than 200,000 parcels, the company decided to move on to the next stage of its development, the big cities. For this first in the United States, the company chose Dallas and more precisely Frisco and Little Em for the launch on April 7. An area that will cover tens of thousands of homes that will not all be able to be delivered at launch. Orders will be processed in waves depending on the different feedback.

Autonomous delivery

The main customer for this launch is Walgreens, which will deliver health and wellness products. Unlike the usual model, the drones will be stored directly in the parking lot of one of the stores rather than at a Wing site. Employees will only have to prepare and attach the packages, Wing managing the delivery part. Other customers include Blue Bell (ice cream), Easyvet (prescription drugs for animals) and Texas Health.

The drones are delivered with small containers designed to serve as their hangar and the flight is fully automated. For safety reasons, they are equipped with redundant systems (motors, batteries, GPS, etc.) to avoid an accident and, if necessary, a pilot can quickly regain control of the flight.

According to the company, “this is an important step for Wing and drone delivery in the United States” which, if successful, could benefit from rapid development in other major cities.



Source link -98