First courier drones
Alibaba, China’s e-commerce giant, announced its first drone delivery to a remote location this week. This milestone is part of a bigger study conducted by the company on how UAVs can be used in other ways, such as to transport food that has gone bad or collect garbage from areas too small for humans.
Three drones carrying six boxes of passion fruit left the airfield of Putian in Fujian last week. They flew about 1,700 meters and reached Meijou island off the coast by October 31st. As strong winds were blowing, the flying devices took nine minutes to cross a distance of five kilometers in a straight line. Each drone can carry a weight of up to seven kilograms.
Last year, Alibaba’s distribution company and a domestic technology company jointly developed the devices used to deliver e-commerce goods.
Jeng Jinmei, an e-store in Eastern Chongming Island, said that delivery drones will cut transport time from hourlong drives to less than 10 minutes and also lead to reduced shipping costs.
Alibaba has prepared additional devices ahead of “Workers’ Day” which falls on November 11. This particular day, which can be compared to Black Friday in the US, has become a day of consumer frenzy in China after 2009 when Alibaba went on a massive announcement and sold out nearly all their devices.
Alibaba is planning to use drones in the future to deliver products such as fresh food and pharmaceutical supplies.
You can read another article about drones here.
Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
