Posts Tagged: Alphabet’s
Alphabet’s Wing will begin drone deliveries in Dallas-Fort Worth on April 7th
Alphabet's Wing division has announced that it's launching a drone delivery service in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex on April 7th. "With this service, the DFW area will be the largest metro in the world, and the first in the United States, with access to on-demand drone delivery," a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Wing's primary launch customer is Walgreens, which will deliver health and wellness products directly to customer's homes. For that, it will use a new operational model where drones are staged at one of its own store parking lots, rather than a Wing facility. It will also be delivering ice cream from Blue Bell Creameries, Easyvet prescription pet medications (yep) and first aid kits from Texas Health.
"This will be America’s most scalable drone delivery operation to date, as Walgreens team members will process their own orders and load packages onto drones themselves – while Wing oversees the delivery from a remote location," the company said.
In a press release and video (above) from last year, Wing explained exactly how that would work. "The aircraft will arrive in small containers that serve as tiny hangars, allowing each store to quickly and easily deploy a small, dedicated fleet from its parking lot, on its roof, or in small spaces adjacent to the building."
Wing uses a hybrid multi-rotor/fixed-wing drone of its own design. It can carry packages no heavier than 1.5kg (3.3 pounds) on round trips up to around 10km (6 miles) away. The drones are autonomous, but are monitored by pilots who can take control if something goes awry. There are redundant motors, batteries and navigation systems to help prevent accidents.
Wing has been doing drone deliveries in Australia (its launch market) since early 2019, and started making drones deliveries in the US later that year. The company noted that it has made 200,000 real deliveries to date, but those were largely done in smaller communities — so the city launch is a big deal. "This is an important milestone for Wing and drone delivery in the US," the company said in a press release.
Deliveries will start on April 7th for "tens of thousands" of homes in Frisco and Little Elm, both north of Dallas. "I do want to set clear expectations: not everyone who lives within range of our drones will be able to order on Day 1. We’re going to invite customers in groups to make sure everyone has a good first experience with drone delivery," said Wing CTO Adam Woodworth.
Alphabet’s Wing starts drone deliveries to US homes
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Alphabet’s Verily health watch gets FDA approval for ECG feature
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Google’s Sundar Pichai becomes the thirteenth member of Alphabet’s board
While the number 13 is considered unlucky by some, it’s proving to be a lucky number for Sundar Pichai at least, because Alphabet has announced that Google‘s CEO is set to become its thirteenth board member. Pichai will become the second Google executive on Alphabet’s board with Diane Green, the head of Google’s cloud division, […]
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Alphabet’s Schmidt lays out top tech trends
At the Milken Institute’s Global Conference this past week, Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt spoke at a session during which he shared his thoughts on top “tech moonshots” or trends that he sees changing the world we live in. Although these are not the same as what we commonly refer to when talking of Google X Labs’ “moonshots” you may note there is some overlap.
One of the trends identified by Schmidt is also getting a lot of attention in the tech industry right now, virtual reality. Schmidt thinks the use of virtual reality for gaming and entertainment only represents the earliest steps for the technology. Eventually the technology will expand beyond those fields to other areas. One of the keys will be the convergence with “augmented reality” technologies that will help to combine virtual realities with physical realities.
Another trend is one the Google is intimately connected with, self-driving cars. While there are opportunities for self-driving cars to help create new business opportunities, Schmidt sees the biggest impact being on safety. He noted that just in the U.S., almost 33,000 people die annually on the roads, so there is a huge opportunity for technology to help save lives. Schmidt went so far as to advocate a global effort focused on self-driving car technologies.
Google has been expanding there presence in education through both their Chromebook devices as well as their Google for Education platforms. This also happens to be another area where Schmidt sees technology having a huge impact. Schmidt sees the ability of computing technology to help with assessment of students as a boon that will help educators customize teaching methods to be most effective and efficient for any given student.
Through their Android platform and plethora of mobile apps, Google has a huge presence in the mobile device market. According to Schmidt, we all touch our smartphones about 1,500 times per week and they contain a wealth of personal information. Throw in all the new sensors, whether present in smartphones directly or through connected devices like activity trackers and smartwatches, leads Schmidt to think the move of medical data to mobile platforms will be a game-changer in helping connect patients and doctors.
Moving to areas where Google may not be so involved with, Schmidt says he thinks 3D printing technology could be applied in the field of construction to produce buildings faster, at a lower cost and using recycled materials that are better for the environment.
Finally, Schmidt sees technology having a big impact on the food we eat through the use of plants to replace meat, in particular beef. Schmidt believes cattle producers are a significant source of greenhouse gases, so any changes that minimize the continued use of meat will be good for the environment. Along with that benefit, Schmidt thinks the use of plants instead of meats will help lower food costs, an especially important concern in developing countries. Besides the science of engineering synthetic foods, Schmidt sees technology and computers helping identify the best plants and combinations to meet nutritional needs.
What do you think of Schmidt’s top technology trends that will impact our future world?
source: Fortune
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