Earlier in the week, the world’s first ever commercial drone delivery service has received the approval from the Australian authorities, thus, paving the way for medical supplies, coffee, and chocolate bars to be ferried to consumers in Canberra in just a matter of a few minutes.
As per reports, Google’s parent company Alphabet is leading the project, which managed to fend off competition from Amazon to win over Australian regulators.
As per reports, for the past 18 months, Wing, a company spun out of Alphabet’s secret research laboratory X, has been testing its delivery services in Australia as well as in the US in a bid to discover new ways of delivering goods by drone while reducing urban traffic congestion.
According to an official at Wing, “The flying drones have zero carbon emission and are autonomous that can travel up to 120km/h using an electric power system.
The commercial drones, which can fly at an altitude of up to 400ft above the ground and deliver packages “to a location the size of a doorstep,” will be utilized for the first time in Australia’s capital Canberra.
As per reports, initially, deliveries will be limited to roughly 100 homes in Palmerston, Franklin suburbs, and Canberra’s Crace, with the area expected to expand rapidly.
Reports also state that drones will only be permitted to fly for a maximum of 12 hours per day. They must be piloted remotely from the ground and will not be fully automated.
On Tuesday, March 9th, Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority stated, “We have approved Wing Aviation Pty Ltd to operate ongoing delivery drone operations in North Canberra.”
Wing made 3,000 deliveries during a trial period in order for the aviation watchdog to assess the safety of the deliveries. In a statement Wing said that it had delivered “locally-made coffee and chocolate, over-the-counter chemist items and food and drinks.”
In a bid to mark its first move into Europe, the company hopes to launch its drone delivery service in Finland later this year.
