Wing, a drone delivery operator owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is planning to roll out its services over the next 12 months.
Wing says its vision is to deliver people’s packages more efficiently and safely as part of an automated logistics system that moves packages by the millions.
“Up to this point, the industry has been fixated on drones themselves — designing, testing, and iterating on aircraft, rather than finding the best way to harness an entire fleet for efficient delivery,” the company said in a recent blog.
“Wing’s approach to delivery is different. We see drone delivery at scale looking more like an efficient data network than a traditional transportation system. As with many other areas of technology, from data centres to smartphones, the physical hardware is only as useful as the software and logistics networks that make it meaningful for organisations and their customers.”
Easy to deploy and maintain
Wing says its delivery network’s automation makes it “very easy to deploy and maintain”.
Rather than focusing on a single aircraft or delivery, Wing’s pilots will oversee fleets of autonomous delivery drones to ensure they’re operating safely and efficiently.
“Wing Delivery Network can also help automate compliance with regulation – each time a plane is turned on it checks that it’s in the right place, has the right software, and is ready and approved to fly,” the biog said.
The network is managed by logistics automation software that allocates resources including the delivery drones, “pads” where drones takeoff, land, and recharge, and “AutoLoaders” that allow Wing’s partners to preload packages for automatic pickup.
Wing plans to roll out elements of its Wing Delivery Network capabilities over the next 12 months, demonstrating them in new locations around the world this year. By the middle of 2024, the company expects the system to be capable of handling millions of deliveries for millions of consumers at a lower cost per delivery than ground transportation can achieve for fast delivery of small packages.
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