Thursday, March 28, 2024

Zipline storms digital economy with drone home delivery services

Zipline has ventured into the fast growing digital economy, launching home delivery drones.

This is an advancement in the home delivery services which has previously mastered technology in product sourcing, while delivery done on automobiles.

The new venture is an expansion to Zipline’s scope of drone delivery which has previously been concentrated on drone delivery of medical and agricultural products.

Our new service is changing that and will finally make deliveries work for you and around your schedule. We have built the closest thing to teleportation ever created – a smooth, ultrafast, convenient, and truly magical autonomous logistics system that serves all people equally, wherever they are

Rinaudo Cliffton, co-founder and CEO of Zipline.

According to the logistics company, the new platform provides quiet, fast and precise autonomous delivery directly to homes in cities and suburbs.

“Over the last decade, global demand for instant delivery has skyrocketed, but the technology we’re using to deliver is 100 years old. We’re still using the same 3,000-pound, gas combustion vehicles, driven by humans, to make billions of deliveries that usually weigh less than 5 pounds. It’s slow, it’s expensive, and it’s terrible for the planet,” said Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, co-founder and CEO of Zipline.

“Our new service is changing that and will finally make deliveries work for you and around your schedule. We have built the closest thing to teleportation ever created – a smooth, ultrafast, convenient, and truly magical autonomous logistics system that serves all people equally, wherever they are,” he added.

More quiet drone

Unlike other drone delivery services, Zipline’s drones (Zips) fly more than 300 feet above the ground and are nearly inaudible.

When the Zip arrives at its destination, it hovers safely and quietly at that altitude, while its fully autonomous delivery droid maneuvers down a tether, steers to the correct location, and gently drops off its package to areas as small as a patio table or the front steps of a home.

This is all made possible through major innovations in aircraft and propeller design.

According to Cliffton, several businesses across the healthcare and restaurant sectors have already signed on to use Zipline’s new home delivery service.

The future of delivery is faster, more sustainable and creates broader access, all of which provides improved value for our customers

Jonathan Neman, Co-Founder and CEO of Sweetgreen

One such businesses is Sweetgreen which is partnering with Zipline to further its mission of connecting people to real food in the US, while moving a step closer to its pledge to be carbon-neutral by 2027.

By ordering through Zipline’s marketplace, Sweetgreen customers can get their orders using 97 per cent less energy than traditional automotive methods.

“The future of delivery is faster, more sustainable and creates broader access, all of which provides improved value for our customers,” said Jonathan Neman, Co-Founder and CEO of Sweetgreen.

He added: “We couldn’t be more excited to work with Zipline to complement our delivery strategy. Zipline’s sustainable technology and ability to reach customers quickly, with a great delivery experience, will help us give our customers what they want, when they want it.”

Zipline
Zipline drone delivering medical supplies. (Photo: Courtesy)

Others are; Michigan Medicine which will use Zipline’s new service to more than double the number of prescriptions it fills each year through its in-house pharmacy, Intermountain Health will use it to deliver prescriptions to patients’ homes in the Salt Lake City metro area.

MultiCare Health System also plans to use the new platform to expedite diagnostics and deliver prescriptions and medical devices throughout MultiCare’s network of facilities, including hospitals, laboratories and doctors’ offices.

Zipline’s first customer, the Government of Rwanda, will use the company’s new home delivery service to enable urban aerial last-mile delivery to homes, hotels and health facilities in Kigali and elsewhere in the country.

The company has since received Part 135 certification, and is authorized to complete the longest-range, on-demand commercial drone flights in America, and recently received FAA approval to enable its onboard autonomous detect and avoid system.

How it works

Zipline’s end-to-end solution seamlessly integrates with a business’s current operations.

That includes its dual-use docking and charging hardware, software that easily works with third-party inventory management and ordering systems, an intuitive app that allows order tracking down to the second, and an autonomy system that has already guided the flight paths of 40 million commercial miles.

Zipline designed its docking and charging hardware to have a light footprint that can be attached to any building or set up as a freestanding structure.

A Zip can be easily be loaded by a business’ employee who can send off orders in seconds, right from their location, without even having to leave the kitchen, pharmacy or doctors’ office.

Businesses can offer Zipline’s home delivery service in a variety of ways, including native integrations into apps and websites, white labeled opportunities, and by joining Zipline’s marketplace.

Customers can make on-demand orders, or schedule the exact time they’d like their package to arrive, down to the second.

Each P2 Zip has a 10-mile service radius while carrying a 6-8 pound payload for out-and-back deliveries from a single dock.

Alternatively, it can also fly up to 24 miles one way from dock to dock, charging at each dock before picking up its next delivery.

Kevine Omollo
Lake Region Bulletin is your one stop multi-media platform for news from Lake Region Counties of Kisumu, Siaya, Homa Bay, Migori, Kisii, Nyamira, Vihiga, Kakamega, Busia, Bungoma, Trans Nzoia, Nandi, Kericho and Bomet. Email: komollo@lakeregionbulletin.co.ke omollokevine@gmail.com

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