Alphabet's Wing has revealed a series of new prototype aircraft that is designed to handle different payloads, as reported by The Verge. The new drones will have the same underlying components as the aircraft currently in use outside Dallas-Fort Worth.
The goal is to right-size delivery industry to match appropriate packages with the same-sized vehicle.
In the video, the company showed various-sized drones, including a larger drone that can carry upward of seven pounds and a smaller drone designed to carry prescription medicine that weighs up to 0.6 pounds.
Their flagship drone is meant to handle payloads of up to 2.5 pounds. According to the company, up to 90 percent of deliveries today are packages that weigh five pounds or less.
Wing has a share of minor successes. Recently, they completed their 250,000th delivery while operating in three countries. However, its biggest success was in Logan, Australia, where over 50,000 of its total deliveries have been carried out.
The company launched its first commercial service in April in the towns of Frisco and Little Elm in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Their operation model involves parking small shipping containers next to participating stores to act as tiny hangers from which Wing's drones will be deployed.
Once they receive their orders online, the employees at each partnering store, the items are taken outside and loaded into a cardboard package attached to the drone.
As of now, customers can order items from a limited number of stores that partner with Wing. Therefore, Wing wants to expand its delivery offerings by introducing various-sized aircraft that can handle smarter or bigger packages.
There is no specific date when these new drones will be reintroduced, and the company specified that it's still in its prototype phase.
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Drone Deliveries on the Rise
According to some reports, drone deliveries are already growing at a steady rate and are set to grow even more in the future. Drones are expected to continue to grow and gain market shares. The main cause of this growth is that drones are cheaper to use than full-size helicopters because they can fly longer and at a lower altitude.
In terms of delivery platforms, drones are more versatile and efficient. They can fly higher up, which is beneficial in areas where there are tall buildings and a lot of people. Also, they are not as noisy as helicopters and do not create huge traffic in the city.
Aside from the fact that drones are quieter, the delivery industry is easily scalable. Also, drone companies can use their technology and data to develop their own delivery platform.
Drone deliveries are set to become more common in the near future. For the time being, drones still have a lot to be improved when it comes to making them more efficient and cheaper. However, they are already off to a good start, and they are expected to continue growing in popularity in the future as long as they keep improving.
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Written by April Fowell
