Retail Delivery by Drone

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.