Alphabet starts testing burrito delivery drone in Australia
Project Wing from Alphabet's X lab is making the most of Australia's looser regulations and is partnering with two businesses to test drone deliveries to people's homes. Partnerships with pharmacy chain Chemist Warehouse and Mexican food outlet Guzman y Gomez in Australia followed Project Wing's tie-up with Chipotle in the US last year. "The more test deliveries we do, exposing the sensors on our aircraft to new delivery locations, the smarter our aircraft’s algorithms will one day become at picking a safe spot for deliveries," said project co-lead James Ryan Burgess.
Project Wing, the drone delivery initiative of Google-owner Alphabet’s X lab, has partnered with two Australia businesses to further test its technology. In a new blog post published today on Medium, project co-lead James Ryan Burgess detailed the division’s recent progress toward bringing drone delivery to the masses, which has involved working with selected testers in a number of specialized markets. Last year, Wing launched a pilot program with the Virginia Tech thanks to a Federal Aviation Authority-approved partnership with Chipotle.

Now, partnerships with two new businesses — a Mexican food chain called Guzman y Gomez and pharmacy chain Chemist Warehouse — mark the first time Wing’s drones will be delivering third-party products in Australia to individual homes. Australia is a more fertile testing ground for drone delivery technology because of its lax regulatory environment, meaning Wing had to deliver to Virginia Tech students last year in a large open field. (Strict FAA regulations, along with leadership changes, have also made it difficult for Wing to secure more partnerships in the US.) The team can now gather valuable data from having its drones maneuver obstacles in real-world neighborhoods in Australia, while delivering burritos and medicine along the way.

Project Wing is now sending drones to people’s individual homes

“The sensors on our aircraft are responsible for identifying obstacles that might appear during a flight or delivery, like a car parked in an unexpected spot, or outdoor furniture that’s been moved,” writes Burgess. “The more test deliveries we do, exposing the sensors on our aircraft to new delivery locations, the smarter our aircraft’s algorithms will one day become at picking a safe spot for deliveries.”

We’re still years away from the vision being chased by both Project Wing and Amazon’s Prime Air. The ultimate goal is to create a robust system that can speed up delivery times and bring near-instant shipping to markets like food and grocery providers and drug and convenience stores. This is crucial for a company like Amazon, which is trying to increase efficiency at all costs and cut out middlemen in its logistics chain. (Amazon is primarily testing its delivery drones in the UK, which is also more accommodating than the US with regards to aircraft regulations.)

A Guzman y Gomez employee preparing to load a Project Wing drone with a food order using a hook and winch system. Photo: Google

For Alphabet, it’s less clear what the ultimate goal of its drone delivery ambitions are. “The information we gather from both of these test partners will help us build a system so that merchants of all kinds can focus on what they’re good at — like making food or helping people feel healthier — rather than being distracted by complex delivery logistics,” writes Burgess. It’s clear Alphabet wants its technology to play a part in whatever shape unmanned aerial systems do take in the future, perhaps both as a mapping and a drone software play.

Still, to help drone delivery truly takeoff, companies and regulators will need something akin to a federal air traffic control system exclusively for drones, to help pre-planning of routes, avoid collisions, and ensure the relative safety of pedestrians and animals. This could be Alphabet’s eventual goal: creating the software backbone of the air traffic control system for drones.