Alphabet’s Wing nearing 100,000 in drone deliveries
This comes almost two years after launching in Logan, QLD.
Wing, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said it has made almost 100,000 deliveries direct to consumers.
Approaching two years of drone delivery service in Logan, QLD, Wing said its drones have made more than 50,000 deliveries in the area in the first eight months of 2021.
During the first week of August, Wing made nearly a record 4,500 deliveries and says it continues to average thousands of deliveries each week.
The over 50,000 Logan deliveries this year include more than 10,000 cups of barista-made hot coffee, 2,700 sushi rolls, and 1,000 loaves of bread.
“Logan is fast cementing its place as the drone delivery capital of the world. From Wing’s early days delivering to a small group of customers in two suburbs in 2019, we’re now making thousands of deliveries each week to 19 suburbs, with a combined population of more than 110,000 people,” said Jesse Suskin, Wing’s spokesperson and head of policy and community affairs.
Wing saw a 500% increase in deliveries worldwide in 2020 over 2019, and says they will continue to grow at a similar rate in 2021, having completed more deliveries globally in the second quarter of 2021 than in the entire year of 2020.
“We heard from a number of customers that they found on-demand drone delivery especially useful as they stayed home, and relied on our contactless service to deliver the things they needed,” Suskin said.
The drones have a wingspan of about 1.5 metres, weigh about 4.8kgs and can carry packages around 1.5kgs at speeds of over 110 kilometres per hour.
Once a customer submits an order via the Wing mobile app, a drone flies to pick up the package at their delivery facility. Upon arriving at the destination, the drone slows down, hovers, descends to a delivery height of 7 metres above ground, lowers the package to the ground on a tether and automatically releases the package in the desired delivery area.
“As Wing expands over the next year, we'll continue to improve our service’s ability to meet the needs of the communities we serve and the local businesses we support. While local businesses currently co-locate with us at our delivery facility, in the coming months we’ll be exploring new delivery models, including co-locating our on-demand drone delivery service with businesses at their premises,” she added.
