Drones are usually associated with warfare and policing but times are changing. Businesses have realized that these mechanized aerial vehicles could act as more efficient delivery people. Wing is the name of Alphabet's drone delivery service and it has set the ball rolling. The company has launched a service for people of Christiansburg, Virginia. They can order select items, and a drone will deliver the goods to their homes. There is a wide range of items and the company will deliver goods on behalf of three partner companies.

Daily Mail UK says Alphabet, an affiliate of Google, received approval from the FAA in March.

Later, in September, it announced plans for 'store to door' delivery of a range of selected products in Virginia. The concept of a drone-based delivery of goods is a revolutionary one. It is completely automated and prompt and might need to be fine-tuned based on experience.

The process is simple

Walgreens is one firm associated with Alphabet, the drone service provider. The firm sells hundreds of items but the testing program is limited to products that are easy to airlift. Thanks to modern technology like artificial intelligence and robotics, the drones are autonomous, powered by electricity and fly at 75 mph circumventing obstacles if any in its path.

They are zero-emission vehicles and reduce delivery time to minutes, instead of hours or days when conventional means of transportation are used. Walgreens is upbeat about drone delivery because one of its releases says a large percentage of Americans live within five miles of one of their stores.

Daily Mail UK quotes a media report as saying that Wing has approval to carry out deliveries in Blacksburg, Virginia.

However, there is no clarity on when services might begin there. Wing has the approval of the FAA, but it will not hesitate to work with local governments to determine the scope of deployment of the drones. Of course, they have to take care of issues related to privacy and noise.

Tidbits about Wing’s drones

According to ABC News, the Wing’s drones will operate within a flying radius of about 4 miles from the firm’s distribution facility in Christiansburg.

They can fly a 12-mile round trip, and there are possibilities of widening the range. The firm has outlets in Australia and conducted trials in Canberra and Logan City. However, drone delivery to a customer in Christiansburg, Virginia was the first live commercial one in the U.S. after it received the certification from the FAA. In Australia, people prefer deliveries of food and cold medicine apart from hot coffee. Wing does it in partnership with a local coffeehouse and the drink remains hot. The point to note is the delivery time of food items should be in minutes.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED