California-based logistics startup company Zipline unveiled its next-generation autonomous electric drone delivery platform called P2 Zip (Platform 2). With this, the company aims to make rapid aerial deliveries on an everyday basis for customers throughout the US, even in densely populated urban areas.
With P2, Zipline’s drones will travel more swiftly and silently (designed to sound like wind rustling leaves). It is expected to complete a 10-mile delivery in 10 minutes, about seven times faster than traditional automobile deliveries. The P2 can carry a payload of six to eight pounds.
P2 is a fixed-wing aircraft. However, it also comes with four propellers that allow the vehicle to hover in mid-air and engage in vertical take-off and landing.
The objective of Platform 2 is to improve Zipline’s operations in the US by making them more commercially viable and cost-effective in both cities and suburbs.
A New Method
As compared to Zipline’s previous system, P2 is designed to enable home deliveries using a new drop-off method. Until now, the company used parachutes to airdrop orders to customers. But P2 will instead feature a unique tether system.
A delivery droid about the size of a microwave oven is lowered down on a wire that autonomously guides itself to the target delivery location. It drops off the package at the customer’s front door or in their backyard and then retracts back to the drone.
P2 will also upgrade the retailer’s side of the delivery network. It will feature asset-light, dual-use docking and charging hardware that businesses can attach directly to a building.
Quiet and Energy Efficient
Zipline is focussing on its engineering, making sure that the drones were not just safe and energy-efficient, but also quiet enough that residents would embrace their use.
“People are worried about noise. I’m worried about noise. I don’t want to live in a world where there’s a bunch of loud aircraft flying above my house,” said Jo Mardall, Head of Engineering at Zipline.
Zipline’s drones are electric, they can be powered with renewable or clean energy, without the emissions from burning jet fuel, gasoline, or diesel.
When the drones return from delivery, they’ll dock themselves, release their empty droid, take on a new one and then fly back off to do another delivery. Zipline also designed an accompanying software that can be integrated with third-party inventory management and ordering systems, as well as an app that lets customers and companies track orders.
Collaborations
Zipline is already in a partnership with the government of Rwanda, one of Zipline’s first customers. Rwanda is already establishing a nationwide drone delivery network since December 2022. It will use P2 to deliver to homes, hotels and hospitals in and around the nation’s capital of Kigali.
Another partner, health-focused restaurant chain Sweetgreen, will facilitate drone deliveries in the U.S. through Zipline’s marketplace. Two others, Michigan Medicine and MultiCare Health System, will use P2 to deliver prescriptions across a network of hospitals, laboratories and doctor’s offices, as well as patients’ homes.
With its upgraded delivery system and a new slate of collaborations to test it out, Zipline expects its delivery volume to reach new heights.
Zipline’s half-a-million completed deliveries dwarf the likes of Amazon Prime Air, DroneUp and even Wing, which said last week it just topped the 300,000 mark. Also, in June, the firm secured a landmark FAA certification that gave it the largest commercial on-demand delivery radius of any U.S. drone firm.
