Sitting in the drive-thru lane waiting for your morning coffee is a thing of the past. Wing, Alphabet’s drone unit has made over 100,000 drone deliveries in Australia. As the name suggests, delivery drones are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that are used to deliver packages, medical supplies, food and other goods. According to the Wing website, the drone deliveries have include more than 10,000 cups of fresh coffee.
Winging coffee
The Google moon-shot project began in 2014. The Wing drones are all-electric. The electric delivery system is green and quiet. Drone delivery works like any other delivery service like Uber Eats or DoorDash.
To order their coffee, the customer places their order through an app available in the Apple and Google stores. The coffee shop packages the cup of joe and attaches the order to the equipment. The drone then lifts off on its own. When it reaches its destination, the coffee is lowered down and unclipped, allowing for an entirely contactless experience. (Wing video) Customers can track their coffee drone delivery on their phones. Wing claims that it’s the quickest time from order to delivery recorded was two minutes and 47 seconds. Less time than it takes to brew your own coffee at home.
How Wing delivers coffee
The Wing software analyses terrain, weather, and routing options to make its way over to the customer as efficiently as possible. TechRepublic reports the drones rely on a large number of Google backend systems. The backend system uses the vast computing power that is distributed across Google’s cloud of millions of servers, such as Google Maps, Earth and Street View to understand the location of buildings, roads, trees and other objects of interest to bring your coffee.
In the U.S., the Google spin-out became the first drone operator to win Federal Aviation Administration approval in 2019. Wing provides limited services in Virginia.
More coffee delivery services
You can also get your coffee delivered by drone in Oranmore, Ireland. The town of 8,000 on Ireland’s west coast is the site for a drone delivery trial by the Irish startup Manna. A half dozen Manna technicians run the trial, loading deliveries – that can weigh up to 2 kilograms – into a white paper bag, which is placed into a removable cargo bay inserted into the drone. The Manna drones can fly at 50 mph, the cruise at 260 feet to reach their destination. They can reach anywhere in the town within two minutes.
Once over a delivery house, the Manna drone lowers to 80 feet before a hatch on its belly opens and the bag gently spirals to earth at the end of a thin rope. The company said it was normally doing between 30 and 100 deliveries a-day. The current delivery charge being trialed in approx. $5.
Other companies are working on coffee delivery drones. Matternet,a drone-focused logistics company tested its coffee delivery drone over Zurich, Switzerland in 2017. Back in 2014, the A Lab, an Amsterdam-based company demonstrated Coffee Copter, which relied on an app as the user interface for placing coffee orders in an office setting.
Other companies pursuing drone deliveries
McKinsey estimates that in 2022 more than 2,000 drone deliveries are occurring each day worldwide. They project almost 1.5 million deliveries in 2022.
Domino’s Pizza first delivered a Peri-Peri Chicken Pizza and a Chicken and Cranberry Pizza via it’s DomiCopter drone in New Zeeland in November 2016. Pizza Hut is testing drone delivery in Israel.
Delivery giant UPS has a unique approach to drone delivery. ZDnet reports that UPS is trialing its HorseFlydrone delivery system in rural areas. The UPS drone launches from the top of a UPS truck and autonomously delivers a package to a home. Meanwhile, the delivery driver can continue along the route to make another delivery, because the drone will autonomously return to the truck and dock itself recharging.
DHL has shut down their Parcelcopter delivery drone project. with the company referring in a recent blog post to “unrealistic hype” in the drone delivery industry.
Amazon has recently relaunched its Prime Air drone delivery in California and Texas.
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The technology to deliver coffee by drone is here. The problem is that the FAA has banned all commercial uses of drones in the U.S. The FAA currently requires companies with exemptions, like Amazon, to have an operator with a pilot’s license keep each drone within line of sight—a mandate that makes deliveries completely uneconomical. Experts have expressed cautious optimism that the FAA, which is working on guidelines for drone deliveries, will let them fly in the U.S. – someday.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
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