21
Delivery Drones
Around the World
Late on a Monday morning in the spring of 2018, the Chinese
village of Zhangwei was quiet as usual. Chickens scratched
and clucked on the side of the road, impatiently waiting to eat
as workers used wooden spades to spread grain out to dry.
In the heart of the village center, not far from this familiar scene
that has played out for hundreds of years, there were two un-
mistakable signs that the country’s past had caught up to its
future. Visible to those present was a circle of green Astroturf
laid down in the central square and a building whose sign
bears the logo of Jingdong (JD), China’s largest online retailer.
Then, in what had become such a common occurrence that
workers barely looked up, a low whirr broke the stillness. A
delivery drone arrived overhead, hovered for a moment, then
lowered itself toward the green circle, its three sets of propel-
lers churning the air into small clouds of straw and dust.
Slung beneath the drone was a red cardboard box brand-
ed with JD’s friendly looking dog mascot. As it hovered to
within a few feet of the ground, the drone dropped its cargo,
then zipped back up into the sky and quickly disappeared.
The drop-off lasted no more than twenty seconds. The work-
ers continued tending to their chores unfazed by the whole
scenario that had just played out in front of them.
China Leads the Way
China began 2020 as the world leader in drone delivery of
consumer goods. What set China’s efforts apart from other
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