Manna runs a drone delivery program in Galway, Ireland, with authorization to take it across the European Union. Upon reaching a customer’s home, a drone will scan the area with lidar and radar to find a safe spot, descend, drop off the product, and fly off for its next pick-up. Manna runs 2,000 to 3,000 flights per day with fully autonomous drones at 50 miles per hour.
Walmart and DroneUp, a global drone technology and services provider, have announced commercial drone delivery operations at three stores in Northwest Arkansas, operating from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., seven days per week, to deliver items to eligible Walmart customers by air in as little as 30 minutes.
I first addressed the state of commercial drone delivery last year.
Meituan, a large online shopping, entertainment, and delivery platform in China, has been running a pilot program delivering food to Shenzhen, a city of nearly 20 million. The program is available to just seven neighborhoods and a select number of merchants, and the drones deliver to designated streetside kiosks. Over the past two years, Meituan has flown 19,000 meals to 8,000 customers.
FedEx
Meituan
Amazon’s drone efforts have suffered setbacks, including recent crashes and missed deadlines. However, Prime Air has committed to join Amazon’s sub-same day delivery by 2024.
FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., is teaming up with California-based Elroy Air, which is building an autonomous vertical take-off and landing aerial cargo system. FedEx Express will test Elroy Air’s Chaparral drones within FedEx’s middle-mile logistics operations, moving shipments between sortation locations autonomously.
Flytrex
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Wing
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Walmart
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Domino’s
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Amazon Prime Air
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UPS Flight Forward
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Flytrex
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Others
According to a recent report by McKinsey & Co., there have been over 660,000 drone deliveries to global consumers in the last three years. As of early 2022, more than 2,000 drone deliveries occur each day worldwide. McKinsey projects global deliveries for 2022 will be close to 1.5 million, up from under half a million in 2021.
Wing
Abu Dhabi Department of Health announced that the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is adopting advanced drones to distribute and transfer medical supplies within the healthcare sector. The project collaborates between the DoH, the General Civil Aviation Authority, SkyGo (a drone provider), and Matternet, the logistics service. Drones deliver medicine, blood units, vaccines, and samples between laboratories, pharmacies, and healthcare facilities around the city.
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