Almost four years ago, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos went on “60 Minutes” and unveiled his vision of having drones deliver packages right to customers’ doorsteps. Ideally, this would occur within 30 minutes of the order.
Bezos speculated it might take four or five years to get things right and win the proper government approvals. He professed optimism. “It will work, and it will happen, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun,” he said.
The idea that drones could be used for deliveries was not far-fetched, but the sort of delivery that Bezos described is still many, many years away.
So what is the reality?
The drone technology company Flytrex, in partnership with AHA, Iceland’s largest online marketplace, announced the launch of the world’s first operational on-demand urban drone delivery service. The CEO of Flytrex, Yariv Bash, stressed that “this is a working system, not a one-off wonder.”
Following regulatory approval from the Icelandic Transport Authority (Icetra), Flytrex and AHA received approval to implement their autonomous drone system to deliver food and consumer products from shops and restaurants on one side of Reykjavík to a designated point across the city. The new drone logistics system will allow direct delivery of two parts of the city separated by a large bay.
The payload is three kilograms (about six and a half pounds). Currently, the system is doing one delivery at a time, but multiple deliveries are possible, and it is possible for the controller to be flying several drones at the same time.
In the U.S., drones are required to have an operator in the line of sight of the drone. This new delivery service is based on deliveries outside the line of sight, accomplished through a stringent regulatory process. The drones have a designated flight path that is closed to airplanes and other drones. The drone’s operator maintains contact with the control tower; if a plane is drifting into the drone’s flight path, the operator is notified to prevent any other takeoffs.
As a next stage, Flytrex will deliver to a customer’s backyard. The delivery will be part of the same flight path to the neighborhood that has been approved by Icetra, but with new map coordinates added that specify the location of the backyard. The drone will hover 50 to 60 feet in air and then lower the product to the end consumer.
Logistics are coordinated based on a smartphone. The consumer will have visuals showing the estimated time of arrival and the drone’s current location. When the drone arrives, the customer is notified, and the drone hovers above the destination until the customer acknowledges being ready to accept the delivery. When the customer presses the “accept delivery” button, the goods are lowered to the ground.
It should be noted that Flytrex is not a drone manufacturer. What it has produced is a cloud-based drone management system. The system allows the operator to communicate with the drone, enables smartphones to track estimated times of arrival and delivery activation, integrates into the shipper’s logistics systems and communicates with the aviation regulatory agency.
When I asked about Bezos’ vision of delivering right to a customer’s doorstep, Bash responded, “These devices are too dangerous to be near untrained humans.”
So while the Amazon vision of delivery right to the doorstep remains untenable, Bezos’ stake in the ground did lead start-ups to invest in drones. What we see with this announcement is the first ongoing drone delivery service in an urban area.
Sources:- Forbes
