On Monday, Alphabet, a multinational conglomerate company, has announced that its subsidiary, Wing, is launching a drone delivery service in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), beginning on April 7. With this launch, several places in the DFW metro area will be able to have their purchases delivered by a quadcopter.
“This is an important milestone for Wing and drone delivery in the U.S.,” said Wing CEO Adam Woodworth.
Wing has been testing its service in the Dallas suburbs since last year, and the move to go commercial shows the company’s growing trust in the technology.
Several stores partnered with Wing to deliver items, including Texas Health, Easyvet, Blue Bell Creameries, and Walgreens. The drones will arrive in small shipping containers that mimic tiny hangars, which allows the customer to deploy the fleet more quickly from its roof, parking lot, or smaller adjacent spaces.
Customers will order their products online, and the employees will place them in cardboard packages that they will attach to a drone. The autonomous drones are then deployed and monitored by pilots who can control the aircraft if there is a mishap.
Drone deliveries change the movement of products across cities, with Amazon and Uber vowing to launch large-scale operations soon. However, the technology has primarily been utilized in small-scale trials, such as sending vaccines and blood to remote locations.
Wing’s drones can fly as both fixed-wing planes and hovering copters. Unlike Amazon’s delivery drones, the aircraft does not need to land to deliver products. Wing’s craft arrives at its destination, drops to a height of 23 feet, and then tethers its cargo to the ground, releasing them automatically.
The tech company is currently operating in the United States, Australia, and Finland, and it has been able to achieve a number of goals. For example, the company delivered more than 50,000 packages to Logan, Australia, which is considered its most significant success.
Its focus will be on making minor improvements before it seeks to expand operations on a broader scale. Wing has established a facility at Frisco Station, a mixed-use development and local tourism destination north of Dallas. It will make deliveries and engage in public tours, community demonstrations, and new use cases.
Additionally, Woodworth warns the public that the drone delivery service will not be available initially to everyone within range. Wing will invite a group of customers to ensure that they have a great experience before pushing the service out to everyone.
An Israeli-owned company called Flytrex also plans to conduct food and Walmart deliveries in the DFW area through a drone service. The company already has success in North Carolina.
As reported in The Dallas Express, Flytrex, founded in 2013, has an app that customers use to place orders. It has already brought in $40 million last year and plans to expand nationwide.