Months after Google took the design of its Project Wing delivery drone back to the drawing board, the company's new unmanned aerial vehicle tasked with delivering goods to people once again takes flight.
A video of Google's new delivery drone is making the rounds after Sequoia Capital venture capitalist Aaref Hilaly posted it on Twitter, saying that the drone is promised to travel up to five miles for five minutes. The video was later retweeted by Google CEO Sundar Pichai,
Watching baby steps of drone delivery, courtesy of Google X (5 miles in 5 mins is the promise) #zg15 pic.twitter.com/Xk2KyTRURP
— Aaref Hilaly (@aaref) October 19, 2015
The video looks quite a bit like a scene taken out of "The Hunger Games", but instead of small silver parachutes delivering packages to tributes, Google's new quadcopter drone with aerofoils gracefully drops a package of food and drinks as witnessed by attendees at Google's Zeitgeist conference in Arizona.
Although Google's new drone looks significantly different from the initial five-foot, single-wing drone that could take off vertically before turning horizontally, the new drone appears to share a few similar mechanisms. For instance, the new drone features a set of wings, just like with the old design, but it comes with its own propellers as well.
The delivery mechanism still uses a winch and tether to enable the drone to drop the package to the ground while hovering motionlessly several meters up in the sky instead of landing directly on the ground and taking off once again after the package has been delivered. However, the new drone certainly looks lighter and more streamlined than its predecessor, making it possible to deliver to disaster-struck areas more efficiently.
The video comes hot on the heels of the latest announcement by the Federal Aviation Administration that it is creating a special task force to recommend drone registration regulation that may affect the way Google, as well as other tech companies experimenting with drone delivery, conduct its testing and deployment of commercial UAVs.
The rapid rise in popularity of personal drones brought about by their drop in prices has led to increased near-collisions with larger aircraft, prompting aviation authorities to push for new rules mandating the use of personal and commercial UAVs out of safety concerns.
