I n his grocery store in the eastern Australian city of Logan, Maz Rizk has just received a home-delivery order for one of his tasty roast chickens. In other parts of the world, Maz might hand the requested dish over to an Uber Eats, DoorDash or Just Eat courier so they could take it by car or motorcycle to the customer. But things in Logan operate a little differently. Maz’s grocery store has part- nered with drone delivery company Wing and fulfils multiple hot chick- en orders from their site every day. The chicken, packaged in a custom- ized cardboard box, is picked-up by a drone hovering overhead from a launch zone. A staff member secures the box to a clasp at the end of a line dropped by the drone and watches as it rises up and becomes secured against the underside of the drone. The unmanned aircraft then efficiently buzzes up and away. “Customers love the drone delivery service,” says Maz, whose business, Friendly Grocer Crestmead, also frequently sends milk, eggs, bread and confection- ary via Wing. “The drone can carry a load of up to 1.5 kilograms. It doesn’t replace a full grocery shop, but it means our customers can save a trip to the store when they’re short on time or if they’ve forgotten a few items.” Consumers anticipating the widespread roll-out of delivery drones have been on a rollercoaster ride since the concept first came to mainstream attention in 2013. It was then that digital retailer Amazon floated plans for the use of delivery drones to fulfil customer orders, via a service ultimately known as Prime Air. With such a large company advocating the idea, many imagined we were on the immediate cusp of an era when drones would become commonplace in our cities, carrying every type of consumer item. But the reality is somewhat dif- ferent. Nine years on, Amazon is yet to bring Prime Air to successful 4 | 2.2022 T·TIME Above: Drones will become more important, not only for everyday life but also for emergency care. Left: A Wing drone can carry a load of up to 1.5 kilograms. commercial fruition, despite count- less hours of testing, promoting, and lobbying for regulatory approv- als. Other drone delivery services have burst onto the scene with great fanfare, only to fade away not long afterward. However, the positive experience of Wing in Logan has many drone delivery enthusiasts excited. Dr Catherine Ball, a futurolo- gist and associate professor at the Australian National University (ANU) points to the ‘Gartner hype cycle’ model to explain the falter- ing progress with drones to date. Developed by American research firm Gartner, the model aims to chart the path taken by innovative new technologies as they prog- ress from development to wide W W W.T R E L L E B O R G . C O M
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