Most recently, Walmart, the largest US retail chain, announced the launch of the first commercial drone delivery service in the United States. It started in Arkansas in partnership with Zipline. The retailer has now set up faster delivery over a shorter distance in the same region with more compact drones from startup DroneUp.
If in the case of Zipline we are talking about delivery within a radius of more than 75 km from the city of Pee Ridge, the new project is distinguished by a smaller scale. Residents of the Arkansas town of Farmington, who live within a radius of just over 1.5 km from the warehouse, can order "basic" food like noodles and cans of canned food, children's "consumables" like diapers, paper cups, trash bags and other trifles. Delivery time is about 30 minutes.
The small-scale shipping regions coincide with the flight zone of Walmart's first partner, Zipline. Nevertheless, another technology is being tested - the parcels are not dropped by parachutes, as in the first case, but are descended on special cables. Additionally, delivery stations "in the coming months" will open in the towns of Rogers and Bentonville.
When testing the service, it turned out that the maximum weight of goods delivered within one order should not exceed 1.8 kg, and the delivery cost is $ 10. At the same time, the store lacks a system for sorting orders by weight and, probably, by size - the journalists placed a test order for 27 packs of instant noodles. While they were in line with the maximum weight allowed, it is highly unlikely that the drone would be able to handle the delivery of this volume. Each warehouse is capable of multiple simultaneous launches.
Walmart and DroneUp have previously tested drone deliveries in Las Vegas and New York. It is known that Walmart has already invested some funds in the startup this summer, although the amount of investments has not been disclosed.
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