It was now more than a decade ago that then Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos went on the 60 Minutes show in late 2013 to in part announce the on-line giant’s plans to use drones to deliver its on-line orders.
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Critically, both Wing and Zipline have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly drones “without a dedicated observer being able to see the drone at all times,” or co-called beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
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It’s been a slow go since then, as Amazon and others navigating the technology and regulatorywaters. Some say that Amazon has in fact fallen behind rivals, partly do to its decision to do all the development in-house.
Rival Walmart has taken a different approach, working with several drone developers to advance its strategy.
That would seem to have paid off, with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon making a major announcement on drones at last week’ Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, saying that by the end of year, it would be capable of using droves for delivery for 75% the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex.
To get there, Walmart is partnering with Google’s Wing unit and drone company Zipline on the drone delivery systems. .
Walmart says its service area will cover 1.8 million households in the market with deliveries made within a 30-minute window. Of the 120,000 items in a Supercenter, 75% meet the size and weight requirements for drone delivery if – SCDigesr notes – they are ordered alone.
Walmart at first began its drone delivery program with Zipline and another company called DroneUp in its home state of Arkansas in 2021. It later expanding it to additional states in 2022.
In the Dallas-Ft. Worth market, consumers who live within 10 miles of a participating Walmart store to are eligible for drone delivery.
In early 2023, Walmart worked with Wing to deliver to 60,000 homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area from two different stores.
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 Critically, both Wing and Zipline have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly drones “without a dedicated observer being able to see the drone at all times,” or co-called beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) - in other words, out of the eyesight of a human operator. This is what makes large-scale drone delivery operations more practical and economical.
Walmart has already completed over 20,000 successful drone deliveries. Wing says it will start delivering to new locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area “in the coming months.”
On its technology strategy generally, at CES McMillon said that “We love what technology can do, but we're building it in a way that creates better careers at the same time. It creates better customer experiences and a stronger business. No doubt some tasks will go away and some roles will change - and some of them should, like the ones that involve lifting heavy weights or doing repetitive tasks.”
He added that “As that's happening, we're designing new roles that our associates tell us are more enjoyable and satisfying and also often result in higher pay.”
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