At last, a fully operational urban delivery drone system is here… only you probably won’t get to use it. Drone logistics startup Flytrex has teamed up with Iceland’s main online retailer, AHA, to launch a courier drone service in Reykjavik. Specifically, it’s serving one part of Reykjavik — robotic fliers carry food across a river in the city, cutting the delivery time from 25 minutes to 4. That doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but it could make a big difference both in terms of getting your food quickly and cutting back on delivery costs.
This undoubtedly comes across as a publicity grab. The delivery drones aren’t carrying large packages, and it’s relatively easy to handle a modestly-sized city with few big buildings. However, it does show how delivery drones might find early use in cities. Rather than try to serve everyone, merchants can use drones in those situations where terrain or buildings make ground-based deliveries particularly difficult. Essentially, they would iron out the kinks in the existing delivery system — instead of waiting ages because you live in the “wrong” part of town, you could get deliveries as quickly as anyone else.
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