FRISCO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – A few taps of the finger on an app and within minutes Greg Allbright had a drone hovering over his entrance in Frisco.
A cable fell from the plane and lowered a white and yellow crate to the ground. When it was touched down, the cable released itself from the box, retracted into the drone and the plane hummed away.
CONTINUE READING: Mesquite Officer dies after shooting in front of a grocery store
In the box was an unlabeled water bottle. For the months to come, it could be pretty much anything small at the Walgreens store just a few miles from Allbright’s house.
“There are times when your children don’t feel good. You need aspirin. You need Tylenol. Whatever it may be. And knowing that you can stay with them, calm them down and keep them nice and calm? ”Allbright said after the delivery. “Whatever you’re going to charge me, it’s worth it. Because I’ll pay for it. “
The test flight to his home was one of the first drone suppliers Wing launched this week over neighborhoods in Frisco and Little Elm. This is a necessary step as the company prepares to open the service to the public, Wing announced an expansion in October.
The test flights are partly about training and discovering operational issues, but also about introducing people to drone delivery and learning what they might want to get delivered, especially if a lot of people are still in photography with drones Connect.
“We want to give people the opportunity to see the drone, fly it, meet us and ask questions long before we even start the service,” said Wing spokesman Jacob Demmitt.
CONTINUE READING: Officials respond to the Mesquite officer killed on duty
The company has yet to get some regulatory clearances, he said, in part because Wings’ plans for north Texas are different from the test operations it has been running in Australia and Virginia for a couple of years. Not only will the Texas operation be located in a more densely populated area, drones will also operate from multiple locations rather than from a centralized “nest,” what Wing calls its take-off and landing zones. Even pilots who observe the largely automated operation do not necessarily have to be on site.
This week’s test flights showed that service is much faster than driving a car, even if the store was just around the corner.
In several tests, the process from order to delivery took five minutes or less.
The drive to the Walgreens store, where the plane took off, took seven minutes. It wasn’t a reason to go in to buy something and then drive back to the house.
Allbright predicted that convenience alone will make service a success.
MORE NEWS: Fort Worth ISD hopes to hire teachers on-site and provide tremendous incentives
“At some point you will say, ‘How did I live without it?'” He said.
[ad_1]
