So we have FedEx, Walgreens, and Wing (a.k.a. Alphabet, a.k.a. Google) all collaborating on this. Any of these huge companies could have run a pilot project by themselves and had a head start over the competition. I wonder why they joined up?
My theory #1 is that it's risk mitigation against inevitable public backlash. If and when something happens (drone crashes, a package falls, whatever) the media will be talking about the horrible thing that Google did, or whoever is the frontrunner in drone delivery. Just look at how critics gang up on Tesla when it comes to driverless cars. By combining forces, the media and critics cannot single out Google because it's FedEx and Walgreens and Google; it's everybody doing it.
My more mundane theory #2 is that Wing got the federal certification first, so FedEx and Walgreens paid Wing to be involved for fear of missing out.
Theory #3: It helps with lobbying the more partners you have. Lobbying at state or federal level I think will be super essential otherwise every city will be creating their own set of regulations and some may try to ban drone delivery.
I think the answer is simpler: they could not have run a pilot project by themselves.
Logistics are complex businesses. Google does not have warehouses in enough places to cover an interesting area. FedEx has. And drone deliveries are going to be expensive and only for lightweight items first. That means medicine makes sense. Walgreens will bring the clients.
And no, making reliable transport drones and the infrastructure to load them up, get a reliable GPS coordinate from your client, identifying drop-in zones is not easily done, and that's the value Google brings.
My theory #1 is that it's risk mitigation against inevitable public backlash. If and when something happens (drone crashes, a package falls, whatever) the media will be talking about the horrible thing that Google did, or whoever is the frontrunner in drone delivery. Just look at how critics gang up on Tesla when it comes to driverless cars. By combining forces, the media and critics cannot single out Google because it's FedEx and Walgreens and Google; it's everybody doing it.
My more mundane theory #2 is that Wing got the federal certification first, so FedEx and Walgreens paid Wing to be involved for fear of missing out.
Theory #3: It helps with lobbying the more partners you have. Lobbying at state or federal level I think will be super essential otherwise every city will be creating their own set of regulations and some may try to ban drone delivery.