Walgreens to test drone deliveries with Google’s Wing in Va. town
Walgreens and a Google affiliate are testing drone deliveries that can put drugstore products on customers’ doorsteps minutes after being ordered.
Snacks like Goldfish Crackers or gummy bears as well as aspirin for sick kids will be delivered next month in Christiansburg, Virginia, by a 10pound drone flying as fast as 70 mph, the companies said Thursday.
Customers will be able to order from a list of more than 100 items that includes individual consumer goods and packages of products to help with things like coughs and colds, but not prescriptions.
They will place their order through a Wing app and then get delivery five to 10 minutes later.
A drone capable of making a 12-mile round trip will fly to the delivery site, hover and use a winch system to lower the package to the ground and leave it there. The drone will be run by Wing Aviation LLC, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet Inc.
“We’re taking a 10-pound aircraft to move a 3-pound package through the sky,” Wing CEO James Ryan Burgess said.
Drone deliveries in the country are still largely in early testing. Google announced in April that Wing received federal approval to make commercial drone deliveries. It marked the first time a company has gotten a federal drone delivery certification.
Online retail giant Amazon said in June that it plans to use self-piloted drones to deliver packages to shoppers’ homes in the coming months.
United Parcel Service Inc. said in July that it was setting up a subsidiary to expand its drone deliveries, which are limited to transporting medical samples at a group of hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Burgess said Wing and Walgreens had no time frame for how long this test would take or when consumers might expect widespread drone use.
Walgreens and Wing picked Christiansburg for their test because Wing has been working with nearby Virginia Tech on drone deliveries.
The test comes as Walgreens, based in Deerfield, Illinois, and rival CVS Health Corp. also work to expand same-day deliveries of prescriptions and other products on the ground.