The technicians work in a central location, monitoring the flight status of several drones making deliveries around the United States
Wing, an Alphabet-owned autonomous delivery drone company, released footage on Friday of a first-of-its-kind delivery drone command center. Wing technicians will monitor Uber-like GPS routes to ensure flying Doritos and Tylenol reach their intended recipients, rather than monitoring Predator drones dropping bombs over villages.
The Wing technicians, known as "Pilots in Command," work from a central headquarters in Texas, where they can monitor feeds of deliveries taking place across several time zones. Multiple displays fill the area, displaying the progress of numerous deliveries to PICs. PICs do not have access to live camera feeds or a joystick to maneuver the drones because they fly autonomously. Instead, the PICs monitor the drone's GPS coordinates on a map and keep track of weather and air traffic changes.
"The aircraft robots are very good at monitoring themselves," said a Wing PIC in a company video. "All they have to do is send out alerts to the pilots."
Wing drones performing Walgreens deliveries now have a 4.5 mile permitted delivery range, while Wing claims the drones could potentially reach a range of roughly six miles. Wing drones already operate within a radius of 50,000 potentially eligible houses. However, the real proportion of those residences who are interested in getting drone deliveries is unknown.
The drones themselves are parked on wireless charging stations dispersed throughout drone "nests," and at the start of each day, the drones rise from their station to participate in a brief flying test before merchants open and begin taking orders.
Though it has taken longer than many of its most enthusiastic advocates would have wanted, there are indicators that autonomous drone deliveries may become more relevant sooner rather than later. The Federal Aviation Administration gave American Robotics permission to become the first drone business to fly a "smart" machine without the requirement for an on-site pilot or spotter in 2020. Amazon announced this year that it would begin delivering some products to select customers in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, and that it would release its next generation MK30 delivery drone in 2024.
Wing, for its part, is already making significant deliveries, but not in the United States. According to reports, the firm has done 1,000 deliveries every day in Australia and just crossed the 100,000 overall delivery milestone. However, not all of those deliveries were flawless. Earlier this year, an Australian Wing drone crashed into electricity wires in Brisbane, frying itself and momentarily disconnecting power to over 2,000 houses and businesses.
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