Get Ready for a Sky Full of Drones — CVS, Amazon, UPS, Walmart, and Uber Are Planning Deployment
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Initially, delivery drones may be as majestic as a single heron landing.
But, within months or a year, the delivery drones could look like a swarm of locusts raiding a neighborhood.
In New York City 1.5. million packages are delivered each day — that is more than half a billion packages delivered annually.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn Providence, certain areas of the city are jammed with white unmarked Amazon vehicles, Brown UPS trucks, and FedEx vans. In Providence, the number of packages delivered may be more in the 20,000 a day range.
Now, the top retailers are moving forward and each with their own drone delivery strategy. The advantage of drone delivery is efficiency and lower cost — fewer trucks and fewer drivers.
All the big players have made announcements on their respective drone strategies — CVS, Uber, Amazon, UPS and maybe most ambitious is Walmart who has filed patents that show how a complex drone army could fill the sky.
Walmart’s Patent Application Unveils the Future
The Walmart system has a number of daunting components — one of the patent applications has a drone landing on a platform outside of a building. The system then sends a signal to the platform letting it know the package has been delivered, which then opens a trap door.
The patent says a "transportation system" will then move the package from the outside of the building to the interior, but it's not clear if this is via a slide -- or how else it would work.
Another Walmart patent application fulfills orders through a network of overhead conveyor belts that moves pouches with products inside, and a network of floor-based conveyor belts and automated guided vehicles. The method used to transport the item depends on the order's size.
CVS System Could Deliver Tooth Paste or Critical Medicine
CVS announced earlier this month a drone partnership with UPS “to develop a variety of drone delivery use cases, including business-to-consumer operating models.”
UPS Flight Forward, which already delivers medical samples by drone at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh, NC, is building out its ground and air infrastructure to meet the needs of a diverse customer base. UPS Flight Forward plans to deliver packages to consumers at their homes in the near future.
“As the country’s first fully-certified drone airline, UPS Flight Forward is rapidly building a robust customer base and a network of technology partners to galvanize our leadership in drone delivery,” said Scott Price, UPS chief strategy and transformation officer. “We will create new logistics and delivery solutions no one has ever considered. Previous industry thinking had been limited to only ground transportation technology. Now we’re thinking in three dimensions.”
IIn addition -- the use of drones could have critical healthcare applications.
"The same drone technology used by the military can also deliver blood, food, and medicine to remote areas that normally have little access to life-saving care. In December 2018, one-month-old Joy Nowai became the first baby to receive a drone-delivered vaccine on a remote island of Vanuatu,” writes Flynn Coleman in Thrive. "In places with hard-to-reach segments and poor road conditions, drones can provide new solutions, just as cell phones did. Drones are in flight in Rwanda, where the world’s first commercial drone delivery service is sending blood to almost half the country’s transfusion centers. Plans are in place to expand operations throughout the subcontinent, as well as in Latin America and the United States.”
Uber Food Delivery
In June, Uber announced that it would soon begin delivering food with drones. The company famous for ridesharing and JUMP bikes has a massive food delivery system using its ridesharing drivers.
The trials for the new system took place over the summer.
Bloomberg adds that the drones will first deliver food to "safety zones," not people's houses. From there, Uber employees take the packages to the customer. Uber is expected to team with up McDonald's for the trial run.
San Diego residents paid up to $8.50 for drone delivery.
In only seven minutes, Uber says the drones can travel one and a half miles. Eric Allison, who is in charge of aerial assignments, says Uber Eats' success has driven the drone project.
Regulation
Ultimately, the regulatory structure of the systems will be determined by the Federal Aviation Administration. How the agency will respond to the requests from some of the largest corporations is yet to be determined. Presently, test plans are taken on a case by case basis.
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