Walmart is bringing drone deliveries to 1.8mn more households
Business
Drone deliveries now cover 75 percent of population in Texas
(Web Desk) - Walmart is expanding its drone delivery programme to 1.8 million more households in Texas.
The retailer says its drone deliveries now cover 75 percent of the population in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, all thanks to partnerships with drone startups Wing and Zipline.
Walmart launched its drone delivery program with Zipline and DroneUp in Arkansas in 2021 before expanding it to more states in 2022.
The newly expanded service in Texas allows customers living within 10 miles of a participating Walmart to get items delivered to their homes via drone.
Since there is a weight limit, customers can only have smaller products like cold medicine, birthday candles, and even a carton of eggs delivered.
Walmart says deliveries arrive in 30 minutes or less, with some reaching customers’ doorsteps in as fast as 10 minutes.
In 2023, Walmart partnered with Wing, which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, to deliver to 60,000 more homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area from two different stores.
But this marks its biggest expansion yet, adding 30 more towns and municipalities within the Texas metroplex.
The program also now uses drones from both Wing and Zipline to make deliveries in the area, both of which are approved by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones “without a dedicated observer being able to see the drone at all times.”
“Zipline is excited to enable Walmart’s vision of providing customer delivery so fast it feels like teleportation,” Zipline co-founder and CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton said in a statement.
“We’re excited for folks across Dallas-Fort Worth to experience delivery that is 7x as fast, zero emissions and whisper quiet.”
So far, Walmart has completed over 20,000 successful drone deliveries. Wing says it will start delivering to new locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area “in the coming months” and expects to complete the expansion with Walmart within the year.
You can check if your address can receive drone deliveries from Walmart on the Wing and Zipline websites.
