In the age of Skip The Dishes and Amazon Prime , you can purchase anything your heart desires and have it delivered to you within a matter of minutes.
Even though 2019 won’t be the year that we start getting fast food via teleportation, transportation technology has advanced far beyond what we ever anticipated.
In 2013, Jeff Bezos announced on 60 Minutes that Amazon was working on a drone delivery service.
The Amazon CEO promised that the drone pilot project would be available in the not-too-distant-future.
But in 2013, the concept of drones was entirely new. One CNN article covering the Bezos interview described them as “toy helicopters”.
At that point, no one believed it would happen.
Little planes without pilots? Craziness. There weren’t even federal laws in place yet to enforce such an odd project.
“I know this looks like science fiction” Bezos stated, “It’s not. It drops the package. You come and get your package and we can do half-hour deliveries.”
Six years later, that fiction is becoming a reality
Alphabet, The parent company of Google, has their own drone delivery company called Wing .
On Tuesday, Wing announced that their drones will begin delivering fresh food, hot coffee, and over-the-counter pharmacy items to a limited number of homes in Canberra, Australia.
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The delivery service will initially be available in Crace, Palmerston and Franklin, but Wing expects to expand its reach within the coming weeks.
Their statement reads: “Whether you’re a parent with a sick child at home and have run out of baby paracetamol, a busy professional who forgot to pick up fresh bread during your regular weekly shop, or you simply just want to order your morning flat white without the hassle of having to drive to the cafe, Wing has teamed up with local Canberra businesses to give customers the opportunity to have a range of goods delivered in a handful of minutes”
The first three months of delivery will be free.
Initially, the only companies they will be working with will include: Kickstart Expresso, Capital Chemist, Pure Gelato, Jasper + Myrtle, Bakers Delight, Guzman Y Gomez, and Drummond Golf.
However, Wing expects to be working in partnership with a growing number of companies in the near future.
But when will drone delivery be available in North America?
Though the biggest drone deliveries are taking part overseas, America isn’t completely out of the loop.
Drone startup Flirtey has done 7-11 deliveries in Nevada, and a North Dakota Golf Course is delivering food to its players via drone.
For now, we’ll either have to move to Australia, or continue our daily trek to Starbucks. Time to buy a plane ticket!
