Your Prime and Wal-Mart deliveries may be airdropped in 2021.
Walmart announced Monday that it’s partnering with Zipline — a company best known for its medical drone operations in African countries like Ghana and Rwanda — to launch a delivery service of select health and wellness products in the U.S. The company says its intention is to later expand the partnership into offering drone delivery of general merchandise.
This follows last week’s news that the retail giant would run a pilot project for delivery of grocery and household products through automated drones with end-to-end delivery firm Flytrex. Walmart has accelerated the expansion of its pick-up and delivery services in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, as virus-wary consumers increasingly prefer having items delivered at their doorsteps.
“We’ll never stop looking into and learning about what the next best technology is and how we can use it to better serve our customers now and into the future,” said Tom Ward, Walmart’s senior vice president of customer product, in a statement.
Amazon recently received U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to operate its fleet of Prime Air delivery drones, which will allow the company to expand unmanned package delivery. The certification comes under Part 135 of FAA regulations, which gives Amazon the ability to carry property on small drones “beyond the visual line of sight” of the operator.
Walmart’s drone deals also follow its attempt to counter Amazon Prime with its own membership offering, Walmart+, which debuts Tuesday and costs $98 a year.
