Walmart reportedly has forged deals with three drone operators to test how the technology could be used for on-demand deliveries and to help it better compete with Amazon.
It is testing different drone uses, from dropping off groceries to delivering COVID-19 at-home test kits, CNBC said.
Walmart has recently announced three deals with drone operators to test different uses for the drones. It’s teamed up with Flytrex to deliver groceries and household essentials in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It plans to launch another pilot project with Zipline, a company best known for its medical drone deliveries in African countries like Ghana and Rwanda, for on-demand deliveries of health and wellness products early next year.
The company also is piloting drone delivery of at-home coronavirus self-collection kits in North Las Vegas and Cheektowaga, New York, it said in a blog post Tuesday. It’s partnering with Quest Diagnostics Inc. and DroneUp, a Virginia-based drone services provider that works across various industries, Bloomberg said.
Retail behemoth Amazon.com Inc. took a big leap toward delivering goods from the sky last month by becoming one of only a handful of companies certified by the U.S. government to operate as a drone airline.
The Federal Aviation Administration designated Amazon Prime Air an “air carrier,” the company said. That allows Amazon to begin its first commercial deliveries in the U.S. under a trial program, using the high-tech devices it unveiled for that purpose last year, Bloomberg reported.
Amazon and its competitors must still clear some imposing regulatory and technical hurdles before small packages holding the likes of cat food or toothpaste can routinely be dropped at people’s homes. But the action shows that they’ve convinced the government they’re ready to operate in the highly regulated aviation sector.
The FAA confirmed it had granted the approval, saying in a statement that it’s trying to support innovation in the expanding drone arena while ensuring that the devices operate safely.
Amazon joins Wing, the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, and United Parcel Service Inc. as companies that have gotten FAA approval to operate under the federal regulations governing charter operators and small airlines.
The approval comes as Amazon’s business has surged during the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers turn away from traditional stores -- some of which were ordered closed -- in favor of online purchases.
Amazon and other companies hoping to revolutionize the retail world with drones have made significant strides in recent years. They’ve invented new devices and shown, at least on a limited scale, that they’re capable of flying relatively long distances and carrying the payloads necessary for packages.
But routine deliveries are most likely still years off.
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