Wing Expands Its Drone Delivery Service To the Bay Area

Wing is expanding its drone delivery service to the San Francisco Bay Area. "The drone delivery startup has been rapidly expanding to metro areas across the US, but is now targeting the tech-friendly Silicon Valley region," reports Engadget. From the report: Going back to its inaugural deliveries, Wing ferried office supplies across Google's Mountain View campus in the Bay Area with its automated drones. It was still a startup out of Google's X, The Moonshot Factory incubator at the time, but early users were already asking for home delivery services, according to Wing. Now, Wing's latest delivery drones can deliver groceries, food, or whatever else fits in a small package weighing up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less to Bay Area residents. Earlier this year, Wing expanded its service to an additional 150 Walmart stores across the U.S. 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. "By 2027, Walmart and Wing say they'll have a network of more than 270 drone delivery locations nationwide."

Much of Bay Area Airspace Not Zoned for Drones

[BrendaEM]

So, was the FAA just saving the airspace for commercial interests only?

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[OrangeTide]

It's almost like we live in a country where money buys political influence. But that can't be because this is a free country built on equality and principles of democracy.

It will flop

[backslashdot]

City people are stupid and will get stuff like this banned. They should have done drone delivery first to rural areas, where it's actually needed. After that they can expand to small towns, medium and then big city. Deploying this city-first will flop. City people don't want new technology, not unless it's marketed with some fear like delivery drivers eat your food or something like that.

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[Locke2005]

"Grab your shotgun, Cletus, we're gonna hunt us some drones!"

I just can't wait for the golden age of drone piracy to begin!

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[jenningsthecat]

"Grab your shotgun, Cletus, we're gonna hunt us some drones!"

I just can't wait for the golden age of drone piracy to begin!

The drones will undoubtedly be sending video home in real time, so Cletus and his bud will be hearing knocks on their doors soon after. OTOH, I think the EMP cannon I've been dreaming of could be camouflaged quite easily...

Re:It will flop

[r0nc0]

San Francisco - notoriously anti-robot. They will kill the robot and take the cargo. Oakland will just take the robot and cargo and set it all on fire after using it to burn donuts in the sky.

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[maitas]

Drones can crash on your roof or fly through your window, and then burn your house down with a lithium battery fire.

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

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[Locke2005]

People plugging R/C airplane controllers into amplifiers and stealing other people's R/C planes is actually a thing. Sounds like fun, actually. I suspect the manual takeover of a drone will be much more difficult, but that doesn't mean it will be impossible. Any "robots" turned loose in public need to have a manual override so that humans can take over from their autonomous controls, just like the Waymo taxis do.

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[Ogive17]

Deploying this city-first will flop. City people don't want new technology, not unless it's marketed with some fear like delivery drivers eat your food or something like that.

Yes - rural communities are known for being early adopters of technology.

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[OrangeTide]

Rural drones where there are potentially 100 customers in your service area versus a metro of a million people and perhaps 5,000 potential customers per service area (6,436 people per sq mi in San Jose)

Re: It will flop

[madbrain]

Nevertheless, it is a good poiint. The farther you are from a grocery store, the more useful the drone is. And usuay, the density of population is inversely correlated with proximity to businesses.

I happen to live in San Jose proper, near the county line. Nearest Costco is 5 miles which is 20 min drive one way, at off peak hours. Walmart is also 5 miles, but 25 mins. Those times can be a lot longer at peak hours. I also can't drive when it's dark anymore. So, I welcome our drone overlords.

Unfortunately, Wi

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[OrangeTide]

Long ago, when I was a kid, living at my grandmother's on what the post office referred to as a "rural route" rather than a street number . They'd have part timers that would drive the groceries out to a few of the rural areas. But the amount you'd have to tip the bag boy to make it worth their while was really not practical for most families. I don't see running a drone business out in the rural areas as long as people all own SUVs.

I used to live over by Alum Rock park, so I'm more familiar with the north

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[CrankyFool]

Good point, and I'm not here to argue with you -- the problem when we talk about Costco is the Wing drone's max capacity of 5lbs. That's not a Costco trip -- that's barely a trip to a Costco food court :).

5lbs feels like not enough to really replace most trips to actually stock your groceries, unless you break up your shopping trip into multiple delivery flights. It's much better for impromptu consumption (though that said, I feel like most of my trips to the local hardware store are "oh crap, I need th

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[lucifuge31337]

What an idiotically backwards opinion. Where do people like you come from?

Re: It will flop

[50000BTU_barbecue]

Your mama

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[AuMatar]

Something like this needs density. If there's not enough people using it, then the per use cost will be far too much to make it economically viable. That makes cities much more attractive to startups like this. Of course there you have airspace issues with large buildings, so the true sweet spot may be relatively dense but very high income suburbs. But it sure as heck won't be rural.

Product returns

[evanh]

Buying stuff online is pretty hit and miss. If the service could handle product returns for anything deemed unfit/unsuited then that would make it a proper shopping replacement.

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[Fly Swatter]

The only time I return anything is if it is clearly broken on arrival, that was many years ago. Am I one of the few left that actually thinks about what they buy, before buying it?

If you return more than one thing every few months something is wrong with your decision process. If you buy clothes online, well you deserve what you get.

But I want it now!

[Fly Swatter]

Catapult delivery is clearly faster and more direct. Everything is already mapped down to the latest tree heights, it's just a matter of knowing the exact wind conditions and Walmart can just fill the catapult, aim, and deliver.

- no wait, seriously, hear me out....

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[kemosabi]

Express service --> no cargo parachute

On the clock

[CEC-P]

The timer is ticking before one of these drops a package or itself onto a person, causing an injury or death. How long do you think it will take?

Hi my name is Ayatollah YouSo

[istartedi]

I'd like to send an order of bleach, ammonia and thumb tacks to 1000 of my closest friends, via drone.

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[istartedi]

Before anybody points this out, a gallon of bleach (the common size) is currently well over their weight limit. OTOH, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be thinking ahead to the possibility of hackers ordering risky combinations of materials that might ignite or release hazardous fumes if jostled. I don't know if Wing's drones drop cargo like other services I've seen either. The videos I've seen have drogue parachutes but things still come down a bit fast. Anyway, it's not a realistic concern *for now*, appare