Delivery apps: when will they start delivering orders with drones?

For now it’s still science fiction, but they promise it before long it will be reality. For almost a decade, there has been talk that many of the orders placed in delivery apps will arrive at our doorstep in drones that will cross the skies from side to side. And now they’ve set a new start date on what would be a real milestone.

Amazon introduced the Prime Air service in 2013 and it was the first promise that they would start delivering packages by drone.

The other company that is betting big on “delivery drones” is Walmart.

Now, nearly nine years later, Amazon has launched a new drone called the MK30. The model is currently under development and will begin joining its Prime Air service in 2024. In addition to increased range, one of its key benefits is the ability to fly even in the rain. It also has new 25% quieter engines, as published by the specialist site Xataka.

The MK30 is ready for loading boxes of about 2.5 kg, and its obstacle sensing system has been improved. It is capable of reaching 80 km per hour, an incredible speed. When it arrives at the buyer’s home, the plane drops the package from a height of about 4 meters.

The company is preparing to debut the service in two locations (Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas) in the coming weeks. The MK30 is therefore expected to be able to operate in cities with much more population. Talk about Boston, Atlanta and Seattle.

Amazon aims to distribute 500 million parcels per year by 2030. That would be the year drones took off as delivery drivers, when the testing phase was over.

The competition to reign in heaven

Walmart announced its alliance with DroneUp a while ago. Theoretically the service began operating in six states from the United States, but the company does not report how many deliveries have been made at this time. The new markets are Phoenix, Arizona; Tampa and Orlando, Florida; Dallas, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Richmond, Virginia. “Deliveries are made from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening,” the supermarket company added.

“Customers can order everything from Tylenol to diapers and hot dog buns (100,000 different products total, up to a total of 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) to be delivered via drone for $3.99,” they added. from the chain in one note.

For its part, Wing (of Google) also started with its service for deliveries to hospitals or with partners, such as the Walgreens chain.

There is no information on when this type of delivery will expand to other countries, but it would not be much later.

One of the obstacles to progress in this sector are the risks that this would imply. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released its requirements for drone package delivery in 2020. Among many others, it predicted that a human operator always keep an eye out for drones.

SL