By Coutesy of Wing
Wing, Alphabet's drone delivery service, is about to land in Europe. For several years and after 300,000 deliveries -- mainly in Australia and the United States -- developments in legislation mean that the service will finally be deployed and tested in Europe.
Wing, Alphabet's drone delivery service, is about to land in Europe. For several years and after 300,000 deliveries -- mainly in Australia and the United States -- developments in legislation mean that the service will finally be deployed and tested in Europe.
For the moment, Wing is mainly present in Australia and the United States, each time in small areas for local trials and experiments. Most of the deliveries concern small, light batches ordered from merchants close to home. It is generally a question of transporting food or medicine by air.
Now, the updated legislative framework authorizes Wing to fly its drones in Europe. After a first test in Finland, a new demonstration will take place this fall in Lusk, a small town in County Fingal, Ireland. The objective for Wing is to gain experience in new countries, but also to get acquainted with local residents and their needs.
Originally, Wing was set up both for ecological reasons -- offering deliveries without CO2 emissions -- and for practical reasons, in particular to reduce road traffic. The idea is to use these drones to offer faster and more efficient access to small deliveries, in order to better satisfy the customers of partner stores. Currently, the average delivery takes about 15 minutes, although some deliveries can take less than 5 minutes.
