Google sister-company Wing has built one of the world’s largest residential drone delivery operations, pushing aerial product drops past proof-of-concept and into shoppers’ neighborhoods. In the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Wing and Walmart had already reached 60,000 households as of May and have their sights set on serving the full population of 8 million. Shoppers mark a delivery location on their property, a store employee packs the shipment, and Wing’s software calculates the flight route. A hovering drone lowers a tether to pick up and release packages, and returns to the store for docking. “It’s the first time drone delivery is going from pilot programs and smaller metros to ‘Let's see what this looks like across the fastest-growing metro area in the United States,’” says CEO Adam Woodworth. In March, Wing expanded its DoorDash partnership, and in Europe, its drones are making urgent hospital deliveries.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Meet the 2025 Women of the Year
- Why Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- 11 New Books to Read in Februar
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Cecily Strong on Goober the Clown
- Column: The Rise of America’s Broligarchy
Contact us at letters@time.com