Walmart Announces Drone Delivery, Integration with Google's AI Chatbot Gemini (nerds.xyz) 20
Alphabet-owned Wing "is expanding its drone delivery service to an additional 150 Walmart stores across the U.S.," reports Axios:
[T]he future is already here if you live in Dallas — where some Walmart customers order delivery by Wing three times a week. By the end of 2026, some 40 million Americans, or about 12 percent of the U.S. population, will be able to take advantage of the convenience, the companies claim... Once the items are picked and packed in a small cardboard basket, they are loaded onto a drone inside a fenced area in the Walmart parking lot. Drones fly autonomously to the designated address, with human pilots monitoring each flight from a central operations hub....
For now, Wing deliveries are free. "The goal is to expose folks to the wonders of drone delivery," explains Wing's chief business officer, Heather Rivera... Over time, she said Wing expects delivery fees to be comparable to other delivery options, but faster and more convenient. Service began recently in Atlanta and Charlotte, and it's coming soon to Los Angeles, Houston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Miami and other major U.S. cities to be announced later, according to the article. "By 2027, Walmart and Wing say they'll have a network of more than 270 drone delivery locations nationwide."
Walmart also announced a new deal today with Google's Gemini, allowing customers to purchase Walmart products from within Gemini. (Walmart announced a similar deal for ChatGPT in October.)
Slashdot reader BrianFagioli calls this "a defensive angle that Walmart does not quite say out loud." As AI models answer more questions directly, retailers risk losing customers before they ever hit a website. If Gemini recommends a product from someone else first, Walmart loses the sale before it starts. By planting itself inside the AI, Walmart keeps a seat at the table while the internet shifts under everyone's feet.
Google clearly benefits too. Gemini gets a more functional purpose than just telling you how to boil pasta or summarize recipes. Now it can carry someone from the moment they wonder what they need to the moment the order is placed. That makes the assistant stickier and a bit more practical than generic chat. Walmart's incoming CEO John Furner says the company wants to shape this new pattern instead of being dragged into it later. Sundar Pichai calls Walmart an early partner in what he sees as a broader wave of agent style commerce, where AI starts doing the errands people used to handle themselves.
The article concludes "This partnership serves as a snapshot of where retail seems to be heading..."
For now, Wing deliveries are free. "The goal is to expose folks to the wonders of drone delivery," explains Wing's chief business officer, Heather Rivera... Over time, she said Wing expects delivery fees to be comparable to other delivery options, but faster and more convenient. Service began recently in Atlanta and Charlotte, and it's coming soon to Los Angeles, Houston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Miami and other major U.S. cities to be announced later, according to the article. "By 2027, Walmart and Wing say they'll have a network of more than 270 drone delivery locations nationwide."
Walmart also announced a new deal today with Google's Gemini, allowing customers to purchase Walmart products from within Gemini. (Walmart announced a similar deal for ChatGPT in October.)
Slashdot reader BrianFagioli calls this "a defensive angle that Walmart does not quite say out loud." As AI models answer more questions directly, retailers risk losing customers before they ever hit a website. If Gemini recommends a product from someone else first, Walmart loses the sale before it starts. By planting itself inside the AI, Walmart keeps a seat at the table while the internet shifts under everyone's feet.
Google clearly benefits too. Gemini gets a more functional purpose than just telling you how to boil pasta or summarize recipes. Now it can carry someone from the moment they wonder what they need to the moment the order is placed. That makes the assistant stickier and a bit more practical than generic chat. Walmart's incoming CEO John Furner says the company wants to shape this new pattern instead of being dragged into it later. Sundar Pichai calls Walmart an early partner in what he sees as a broader wave of agent style commerce, where AI starts doing the errands people used to handle themselves.
The article concludes "This partnership serves as a snapshot of where retail seems to be heading..."
New business idea (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Walmart sells them.
I think they still sell shotguns and ammo too. But a net is probably safer and slightly more legal.
"purchasing from within Gemini" (Score:3)
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Same people who use Echo devices to order stuff. I'm not sure if they're a lot of them, but that's the idea. It's to be used with low risk supplies like toilet paper or chocolate bars.
Re:"purchasing from within Gemini" (Score:4, Interesting)
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Stickier? (Score:3)
Still Trying To Understand It (Score:4, Insightful)
Walmart ran drone delivery out of two different Walmart locations near me. Recently seemingly discontinued, they ran the service for at least a year.
I just don't understand the value. It required parking lot space for trailer, landing zone and control crew. They'd cordon off 8-10 parking spaces. The range was tiny. Less than two miles. The payloads were very small, relatively speaking. And it, unsurprisingly, was rarely used.
They had a three man crew sitting in the parking lot, roasting all day, for what seems to be only one or two flights a day. A total waste of space and resources.
Contrast this with the fleet of Walmart electric delivery vans whirring all over town, each delivering a literal half ton of goods every day. Drone delivery is incomprehensible.
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I just don't understand the value.
It's for smaller orders that otherwise aren't cost effective to deliver. The idea is that eventually the drone operations will be completely autonomous and you won't need several employees babysitting it.
MANY problems with drones (Score:5, Interesting)
Other drone problems:
1) Dogs will attack drones. From a Slashdot story: "... they hover 23 feet in the air and lower their cargo to the ground on a tether." Dogs will grab the tether.
2) Some people will shoot at drones.
3) Over houses, they will be noisy, scarily noisy, for the local neighborhood.
4) If there is a technology failure, someone in the neighborhood may die, or a house may be burned down.
Remote control over drones can ALWAYS be eliminated or hijacked by radio frequency interference.
I don't want drones near where I live. Will drones be allowed near where Jeff Bezos of Amazon lives? No, of course not.
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And delivery trucks can crash through the front of your house, and then burn your house down with the gasoline from an engine fire.
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When a drone crashes, the driver doesn't get harmed so they care less. When a delivery truck crashes into your house and burns it down, they have a good chance of dying and therefore are more careful. There is no arguing around those points. That's not always a negative, just ask Ukraine. Its a lot easier to get kamikaze drone pilots than one's who are actually in the aircraft.
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They had a three man crew sitting in the parking lot, roasting all day, for what seems to be only one or two flights a day. A total waste of space and resources. Contrast this with the fleet of Walmart electric delivery vans whirring all over town, each delivering a literal half ton of goods every day. Drone delivery is incomprehensible.
Wing’s end goal is to make it anonymous, so the 3 man crew should eventually be zero people, and rather then part of the parking lot it would mostly be space inside the Walmart. Mostly a place for existing employees to pick products and pack them for the drones to take and fly off to whereever.
I assume at some point Wing starts charging, at that point you would only pay for it for things you need in a hurry, like a prescription that you just ran out of. Or that one ingredient you forgot to buy for
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wing was an internal project and they could drop off ice cream
This changes everything! Your introducing drone ice cream delivery into the conversation has caused me to suddenly see extreme value in this service. In fact, I'm feeling that this should probably be paid for by the government. Drone ice cream delivery should be an inalienable right to every American!
What is taking them so long?!
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Your introducing drone ice cream delivery into the conversation has caused me to suddenly see extreme value in this service. In fact, I'm feeling that this should probably be paid for by the government
Dream on, we don’t even have nationalized lawn care!
How much extra? (Score:2)
How much extra will this cost for your order? I went to order from Walmart over the weekend and my total wasn't at least $35 which meant they added a fee onto my order. This was for a pickup at my local store, not delivery to my door.
But wait, if I hand over all my information they'll gladly give me free pickup.
As I was out and about, I stopped in and found one of the two items I tried to order. The other isn't critical so I won't order from them. A lost sale.
One can only imagine the fees they'll tack on
Re:How much extra? (Score:4, Funny)
How much extra will this cost for your order?
They'll probably require a membership to their paid subscription service. I've never seen the value in it, if I need some crap from Walmart I'll just go there when it's not too busy and shop the old fashioned way. It's just as well - their online inventory accuracy is a joke. My Walmart adventures usually go something like this:
"I only need a few things. Maybe I'll just take my e-scooter."
I get to Walmart and they're out of all but one thing I was trying to get.
The checkout line stretches to the back of the store, so I just put the one thing back.
I ride the scooter the 1.5 miles back home, park it in my shed, and get in my car.
I drive to the Walmart on the other side of town, taking the $0.58 toll road.
This Walmart has everything in stock except the thing the first Walmart had.
The checkout line at this Walmart stretches to fucking Pluto.
I put everything back and go to Target instead.
five pound max (Score:2)
Who needs this? 5 pound max payload, and it drops it in your back yard? You can already get a peon to deliver and ring your doorbell within a couple of hours.
Ground based drones are the future (Score:2)
FSD is hard, yet drones want to do FSD in 3D. They will constantly run into trees, power lines, etc. Also, they will always be targets for kids or people believing they are spying on them. Finally, there is a REAL issue with porch pirates and drones can't usually get anywhere near a porch. Who wants their stuff placed in the middle of their yard? Also, this can never work with people who live densely like apartments.
The real drone delivery solution will be vans who text you that they are coming. Once you co