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TechDrones

Drones Might Someday Deliver Burritos and Medications to Australians

By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
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By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
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October 17, 2017, 12:47 PM ET

People living in rural areas of Australia are one step closer to seeing drones fly on by and deliver them burritos and medications. Alphabet’s Project Wing drone delivery said Monday that it’s now testing drone deliveries in Australia with two local companies in the country.

Both the Mexican food chain Guzman y Gomez and the pharmacy chain Chemist Warehouse have agreed to “receive orders from our testers who’ve purchased items using the Project Wing app on their smartphones,” wrote Project Wing’s co-lead James Burgess in a Medium post.

Project Wing, which is overseen by Alphabet’s (GOOGL) research arm X, and Guzman y Gomez have released a promotional video for the proposed drone delivery tests. In one part of the video, a drone lowers a rope from its chassis so that a package, which (presumably) contains a burrito, can be dropped safely nearby for an excited (and presumably hungry) family.

Regarding Chemist Warehouse, Burgess wrote that the pharmacy chain will test the delivery of items like vitamins, dental care, skincare products, and over-the-counter medicines. The Project Wing team hopes to learn how to best fit many so many disparate items together into the drone’s “fixed-sized package,” he wrote.

Project Wing isn’t the only organization testing drone deliveries in Australia. Last summer, the country’s postal service The Australia Post said it was testing the use of drones to deliver packages to people living in rural areas.

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In December, Amazon said it completed its first drone delivery in England as part of the company’s Prime Air initiative.

Several companies like Alphabet and Amazon (AMZN) have been testing drone deliveries in countries other than the U.S. due to less stringent regulations, such as allowing drones to fly beyond the line of sight of human operators.

About the Author
By Jonathan Vanian
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Jonathan Vanian is a former Fortune reporter. He covered business technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data privacy, and other topics.

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