UP NEXT/ DELIVERY THE ROBOTS THAT WILL SAVE LIVES
“We strongly believe,”
says Zipline’s Keller Rinaudo, “if we can order a hamburger for instant delivery in the U.S., we should have delivery for lifesaving medical products, too.” That’s why he co-founded Zipline, which has delivered blood to hospitals and health clinics in Rwanda via drone since 2016. For years, the startup, which has raised more than $41 million and is headquartered on a dairy farm in Half Moon Bay, California, couldn’t launch in the U.S., owing to regulatory red tape. But under the FAA’s threeyear commercial drone pilot program, Zipline expects to begin blood and medicine delivery in North Carolina by early 2019—too late, unfortunately, to serve areas affected by Hurricane Florence. But the company’s drones can fly 70 miles per hour, navigate bad weather, and clear the Appalachians—so they’ll be able to quickly and easily get to, say, barrier islands like the Outer Banks.
The service works like this: A pharmacist or medical professional opens the Zipline app and places an order, and, within 30 minutes, a GPSequipped autonomous drone airdrops the package via parachute. “As goofy as it sounds, think of it as DoorDash or Instacart—you select what you want, click ‘order,’ and it’s delivered,” says Rinaudo. “We want to provide a superpower for doctors and nurses.”