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Google Wing Flies in Australia
While Finland marked Wing’s first program in Europe, it was the
company’s second extended pilot program outside the United
States. The company also ran four separate trials covering some
fifty-five thousand journeys in Australia, carrying products as di-
verse as medicine and coffee across a range of environments.
Despite complaints from residents about excessive noise, the
Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) granted Wing approval to
launch a public drone delivery service in Canberra starting in April
2019. About one hundred homes in three suburban communities
were given access to the service.
Wing predicted that drone deliveries could
be worth as much as $30 million to $40
million to businesses in the area and that
drones could deliver as many as one in
four orders by 2030. The company part-
nered with several local businesses, in-
cluding coffee shops and pharmacies, to
deliver their products in minutes.
Coffee is a popular item among Wing’s
customers in Canberra. It is not an item typi-
cally delivered by car because of how quickly it
gets cold. In the drone, it travels in a normal to-go cup and is
protected by a recyclable paper cocoon. “Our record is 3 minutes
and 17 seconds from an order to coffee in hand,”
12
says Wing
CEO James Burgess.
CASA’s approval came with some operational restrictions.
Drones are not allowed to fly over main roads and can only fly
during specified hours. They are also restricted from flying too
close to people. Customers in eligible homes were also given a
safety briefing about interacting with the drones.
Drones in Iceland
Drone delivery arrived in Iceland in 2017. That year one of the
country’s largest e-commerce companies (called Aha) began us-
ing a Chinese-made drone and an Israeli logistics system to deliver
cocoon
A protective cov-
ering placed over
a product to keep
it safe during
transportation
