Mercedes-Benz Launches Drone Delivery Pilot in Zurich
Mercedes-Benz has launched a pilot program in Zurich to deliver packages via drones, with the goal of eventually expanding to other parts of the world. The program involves the delivery of coffee from a small Swiss merchant via siroop’s platform to a consumer. The system works like any third-party ordering platform, with the merchant entering the order details and passing them on to Matternet. The drone then knows the location of the pickup and drop-off, and a Matternet employee loads the drone (though this will be automated by robotics in the future). The drone reads the destination information using a QR code on the package, so it knows where to go. The drone can fly up to 70 km/h (around 43 mph) for up to 20 km (or over 12 miles). It can carry a payload of around 4.4 lbs, too.
For this demonstration, the drone flew at about 260 ft in the air, and is designed to operate in this band for safety purposes. It flies consistently at this height all the way to the destination, and then it descends to land on the roof of a Mercedes-Benz van, which emits a signal to guide it in precisely and take over from GPS, which alone has a larger margin of error. The van driver then retrieves the package and delivers it to the receiver’s door – in this case coffee, provided to a siroop rep. They were sure to open the package to show that no sleight of hand occurred along the way.
