A new joint venture between Uber’s Serve Robotics roadside drones and Alphabet’s Wing flying drone service will conduct dual testing. Both technology companies hope that drones flying and on the road can cover areas their counterparts can’t and speed up delivery times.
reported that Serve Robotics and Wing will begin deliveries in Dallas, Texas sometime in the coming months. The test will include a select number of customer orders delivered by a combination of curbside and flying drones.
One of the biggest challenges of drone delivery is coverage. Flying drones can only travel a certain distance from their headquarters. Sidewalk drones can find it difficult to navigate in tight spaces and some rocky areas. Drone companies often have to develop their own environments to meet these trends and obstacles.
The idea behind Robotics and Wing is to use both types of drones to deliver orders to cover areas that delivery services cannot. The Serve bot takes the order from the restaurant and carries the food to the “AutoLoader” where , a flying drone that can carry five kilograms and fly at speeds of up to 65 mph, takes the order and completes the delivery.
It is not known which restaurants or retailers will be part of the test, the locations in Dallas where the drones will deliver orders or any post-test plans for the new drone delivery fleet. Serve Robotics makes deliveries to 300 restaurants in Los Angeles. Wing also works with Walmart in Dallas and is involved in Virginia.
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