Drone Delivery Reaches the Burrito Phase

Ongoing testing of delivery-by-drone has reached the point of door-to-door burrito and meds delivery. The drone delivery program piloted by Google-parent company Alphabet is slowly progressing with test runs taking place in rural communities in Australia. Alex Hern of The Guardianwrites that Alphabet's 'Project Wing' drone delivery program is helping the company understand how people prefer to receive their deliveries while also understanding the challenges that businesses, such as Mexican restaurant Guzman y Gomez, face in delivering fresh and hot food by air.

The company also needs to learn how a variety of businesses actually pack their products for flight. “In the case of Guzman y Gomez, who is our first delivery partner for this trial, we’ll need to make sure our technology fits in smoothly into their kitchen operations, as their staff have to juggle many orders at once to ensure that every customer is served fresh, hot food in a timely fashion,” [Project Wing’s co-lead James Ryan Burgess] wrote.

Hern notes that the delivery-by-drone market is becoming more crowded, as companies including Amazon have continued to develop their drone programs.