Walmart Begins On-Demand Drone Delivery Program with Flytrex

Just days after Amazon Prime Air has received FAA approval for drone deliveries, Walmart has initiated a program with Flytrex for its own drone delivery service.

Upon announcing the new initiative, Walmart looked back on a quote from founder Sam Walton: “I have always been driven to buck the system, to innovate, to take things beyond where they’ve been.” It remains a guiding principle at Walmart to this day, according to the company. “From being an early pioneer of universal bar codes and electronic scanning cash registers to our work on autonomous vehicle delivery, we’re working to understand how these technologies can impact the future of our business and help us better serve our customers.”

“Our latest initiative has us exploring how drones can deliver items in a way that’s convenient, safe, and – you guessed it – fast. Today, we’re taking the next step in our exploration of on-demand delivery by announcing a new pilot with Flytrex, an end-to-end drone delivery company.”

Related: FAA Approves UPS as Drone Airline for Commercial Deliveries

The pilot program launched as of September 9th in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and focuses on delivering select grocery and household essential items from Walmart stores using Flytrex’s automated drones. The drones, which are controlled over the cloud using a smart and easy control dashboard, will help us gain valuable insight into the customer and associate experience, from picking and packing to takeoff and delivery. The announcement of Walmart’s new program accompanies various other recent efforts as the U.S. retailer looks to bolster its delivery business.

Why it’s important:

In a press release, Walmart acknowledged the long road ahead; “we know that it will be some time before we see millions of packages delivered via drone. That still feels like a bit of science fiction, but we’re at a point where we’re learning more and more about the technology that is available and how we can use it to make our customers’ lives easier. Take for example our autonomous vehicle work with Gatik, Ford and Nuro – we’ve gained loads of valuable insight into how autonomous vehicles fit within our business.”

Ultimately, it’s learnings from pilots such as this that will help shape the potential of drone delivery on a larger scale and expand Walmart beyond its reputation as a company specializing in in-store shopping. Fortunately, Amazon’s Prime Air business arm has begun to pave the way for certification with its official Part 135 approval to begin operating commercial deliveries on a trial basis.

Source // Walmart press release