Drone company poised to launch deliveries in Virginia
WING, a delivery venture that is part of Google parent Alphabet, has become the first drone company to be certified as an “air carrier” by the Federal Aviation Administration, allowing it to launch a package delivery service within months in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Company executives said they plan to expand to other parts of Virginia and around the nation, though the timeline for that remains unclear. Uber, UPS and other companies are also working on securing related goaheads from federal officials, who have been pushing to expand drone use even as concerns about security and privacy remain.
Wing executives said they’ll ask residents and businesses in southwest Virginia what they want delivered, as they have in Australia, where the company received permission to expand operations. Over-the- counter medicines and food are in the mix. “In the short term you look at what people do every day, especially people with really busy schedules or parents with young children who have a lot of demands on their time,” said Wing CEO James Ryan Burgess. Getting what you need late at night or “a healthy meal delivered, hot and fresh, in just a few minutes, can make a pretty transformative impact in quality of life,” he said.
As for how neighbours’ quality of life might be impacted by buzzing next- door deliveries, the company said that its drones “are quieter than a range of noises you would experience in a suburb, but they make a unique sound that people are unlikely to be familiar with.” Wing said it is working to develop “new, quieter and lower-pitched propellers.”
Wing’s new status was granted under regulations in place to cover traditional charter flights such as those carrying tourists on unscheduled hops between Hawaiian islands, rather than under rules specified for drones. That allowed Wing to leap a major hurdle.
Under the drone- specific regulations, the company could not charge to deliver packages from other companies or individuals over long distances - meaning beyond what the drone’s operator could see themselves.
And now they can do just that and deliver “other people’s cargo for hire, and do so beyond line of sight, which is pretty valuable since the purpose of drones is to carry things a good distance,” Burgess said.
While Wing’s corporate sibling Google has faced growing challenges from privacy advocates and some regulators in Europe and elsewhere about how it employs its users’ data, Wing’s executives have said that data captured by its drones would be available only to a small group for safety and performance purposes. Wing also is taking a public posture emphasizing the importance of community feedback and cooperation with local authorities.
Before launching their commercial service in Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech, and neighbouring Christiansburg later this year, Burgess said company executives are planning surveys and other outreach, including decidedly analogue efforts such as “putting fliers in peoples’ mailboxes, and even door-knocking and holding town hall meetings” and attending other public sessions, Burgess said.
Wing is partnering with Virginia Tech and other firms as part of a federal drone integration pilot programme.
“People obviously have some concerns because it’s so new, and it’s helpful for us to be able to provide that background context for how the technology is specifically operated and what service it provides,” he said, pointing to speed and promised environmental benefits, which the company said include loweremissions deliveries.
On privacy, Wing said its drones have a downward-facing camera “used exclusively for navigation.” —