Zipline has unveiled a new platform that provides quiet, fast and precise autonomous delivery directly to homes in cities and suburbs.
The company’s next generation home delivery technology, Platform 2 (P2), is practically silent and is expected to deliver up to 7 times as fast as traditional automobile delivery, completing 10-mile deliveries in about 10 minutes.
Co-founder and CEO of Zipline, Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, said over the last decade, global demand for instant delivery has skyrocketed, but the technology being used is obsolete.
“We’re still using the same 3,000-pound, gas combustion vehicles, driven by humans, to make billions of deliveries that usually weigh less than 5 pounds. It’s slow, it’s expensive, and it’s terrible for the planet,” he said.
Mr. Cliffton said Zipline’s new service is changing that and will finally make deliveries work for customers and around their schedule.
“We have built the closest thing to teleportation ever created – a smooth, ultrafast, convenient, and truly magical autonomous logistics system that serves all people equally, wherever they are,” he added.
Businesses can offer Zipline’s home delivery service in a variety of ways, including native integrations into apps and websites, white labeled opportunities, and by joining Zipline’s marketplace.
Customers can make on-demand orders, or schedule the exact time they’d like their package to arrive, down to the second.
Each P2 Zip has a 10-mile service radius while carrying a 6-8 pound payload for out-and-back deliveries from a single dock.
Alternatively, it can also fly up to 24 miles one way from dock to dock, charging at each dock before picking up its next delivery.
Because Zips can move from dock to dock, Zipline can dynamically respond to peak order times – ensuring there’s enough delivery capacity for an urgent prescription delivery or a busy Friday pizza night or weekday lunch rush.
“The future of delivery is faster, more sustainable and creates broader access, all of which provides improved value for our customers,” said Jonathan Neman, Co-Founder and CEO of Sweetgreen, American fast casual restaurant chain, and one of the few first customers to deploy Zipline’s new platform.
“We couldn’t be more excited to work with Zipline to complement our delivery strategy. Zipline’s sustainable technology and ability to reach customers quickly, with a great delivery experience, will help us give our customers what they want, when they want it,” he added.
Zipline plans to conduct high-volume flight tests this year involving more than 10,000 test flights using about 100 aircraft. The first customer deployment of P2 will follow shortly after that.
Zipline’s record for safety has been proven over the past seven years of operations and over more than 500,000 commercial flights.
Its long-range platform, P1, has autonomously flown 40 million miles worth of commercial deliveries through all kinds of weather without a safety incident – the vast majority of which were flights flown beyond visual line of sight.
Zipline has received Part 135 certification, is authorized to complete the longest-range, on-demand commercial drone flights in America, and recently received FAA approval to enable its onboard autonomous detect and avoid system.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri