Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 11.53
June 14, 2021
…access to mobility. The Mountain View, Calif.-based subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. said its systems have drive more than 20 million miles on public roads across 10 states and 20 billion miles in simulation. It is reportedly raising up to $4 billion in funding. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo One, which the company describes as “the world's first fully autonomous ride-hailing service,” as well as the Waymo Via, trucking and local delivery service. Waymo offers robotaxi services around Phoenix, Ariz., and has applied for permission to charge for self-driving car rides in San Francisco. J.B. Hunt to test Class 8 autonomous…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 6.78
April 26, 2021
…underestimated Interest in drone delivery is rising. Google parent Alphabet's Wing subsidiary said its service in Christiansburg was among the most advanced of the handful of trial services operating today. But drone technology—and the laws that regulate it—are maturing, and Virginia Tech said it expects services like these to become routine in the next few years. Whether they're successful or not will depend in large part on how the public responds. Delivering packages to homes unfolds in the public eye to a greater extent than many other applications for drones: People may see the drone in the commercial area where…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 8.48
August 31, 2020
…that the devices operate safely. Amazon joins Wing, the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, and United Parcel Service as companies that have gotten FAA approval to operate under the federal regulations governing charter operators and small airlines. Wing, with partners Walgreens and FedEx Corp., has been conducting limited drone deliveries under a similar FAA approval in Virginia since last year. UPS flies medical supplies within a hospital campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. Other smaller companies and startups are also seeking expanded FAA approvals. Amazon will begin its own delivery tests, it said, declining to say where and when they would occur. It…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.50
March 03, 2020
…and cost effectively. Companies developing autonomous truck technologies include Alphabet/Waymo, Embark, TuSimple and Starsky Robotics. Rather than fully replacing humans with fleets of “driverless” trucks, says De Muynck, a more likely near-term scenario will be to pair autonomous trucks with human drivers to extend range and lower costs. The human driver could handle urban environments and loading/unloading interactions, while the autonomous vehicle handles the driving for long stretches of highway. Assuming regulations over driver rest could be ironed out, this pairing of human drivers and autonomous trucks could keep assets rolling to effectively speed up transit times. In some regions,…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 5.56
September 04, 2019
…with shippers serving small regional markets. Google’s parent company Alphabet, for example, has the FAA’s blessing to begin food delivery in Virginia using the same drone technology it now uses for food logistics in Australia. Amazon introduced its Prime Air delivery drone last June, with the intent to deliver food from the Amazon platform. Finally, Uber Eats is testing the first-ever commercial application of drone food delivery in high-density urban areas. The initial customer tests will showcase what the future of food logistics may look like for millions of consumers worldwide. Ryan Hammer, corporate vice president and president of Golden…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 15.51
August 28, 2019
…airlines and “last-mile” trucking companies, the innovation is gaining traction with shippers serving small regional markets. Google’s parent company Alphabet, for example, has the FAA’s blessing to begin food delivery in Virginia using the same drone technology it now uses in food logistics in Australia. Amazon introduced its Prime Air delivery drone last June, with the intent to deliver food from the Amazon platform. Finally, Uber Eats is testing the first ever commercial application of drone food delivery in high-density urban areas. The initial customer tests will showcase what the future of food logistics may look like for millions of…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 5.70
May 23, 2019
…pizza by drones in New Zealand. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, used drones to deliver Chipotle burritos to Virginia Tech’s campus. And Zipline is using drones to deliver medicines faster in Ghana and other markets in Africa. These examples may seem small today, but I believe they are monumental for the development of drone technology. Early adopters will be lightweight products like pizzas and medicines, due to weight restrictions. These smaller drones can only physically and legally carry packages under ten pounds, and Amazon Prime Air restricts their package weight to half that, at five pounds or less. In the future,…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 13.11
May 13, 2019
As reported by Bloomberg, an offshoot of Alphabet Inc.’s Google has become the first drone operator to receive government approval as an airline, an important step that gives it the legal authority to begin dropping products to actual customers. The subsidiary, Wing Aviation LLC, now has the same certifications that smaller airlines receive from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation. It plans to begin routine deliveries of small consumer items in two rural communities in Virginia within months, the company said. From Bloomberg: Google Spinoff’s Drone Delivery Business First to Get FAA Approval Recode reports that…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 18.37
December 06, 2018
…project that “graduated” into full company status under the Alphabet umbrella this past July, is taking flight in Europe. Wing announced that it will start a new pilot in Finland beginning in the spring of 2019 in Helsinki, delivering goods and packages of up to 1.5 kilograms (about 3.3 pounds) within a distance of up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Deliveries will be available for free as part of the trial, although the company intends to charge for them if a full commercial service launches. The company has spent the past 18 months trailing the customer experience of drone delivery…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 5.60
November 22, 2018
…the development of autonomous vehicles. There is another combine, Waymo/Google/Alphabet, working out kinks in the technology. Lyft and General Motors are combining efforts. And of course, Tesla and its innovative CEO Elon Musk, the peripatetic Canadian-American business magnate, investor, engineer, and inventor are bullish. The U.S. chip-making giant Intel announced Monday that it had reached a deal to acquire an Israeli company called Mobileye for $15 billion. The combination is expected to accelerate innovation for the automotive and trucking industry and position Intel as a leading technology provider for highly and fully autonomous vehicles. So What’s Happening in Trucking? Last…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 13.76
November 22, 2017
…autonomous vehicles. Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google’s parent Alphabet, had a similar revelation this summer. That’s when it announced a pivot from developing its own self-driving cars to developing self-driving technology for cars mass produced by others. That resulted in the demise of the company’s Firefly self-driving car (no steering wheel, no peddles) - probably the first retirement from the autonomous vehicle race. In other words, we have to be aware of the difference between possibility and probability and pervasive. That’s true for individual suppliers in particular as well as autonomous vehicles in general. As to the latter, we…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 10.22
November 03, 2017
…their ability to move forward. Companies including Amazon and Alphabet’s Project Wing have at times had to test their drone-delivery systems in other countries. Key dates after publication of Federal Register Notice (FRN) UAS Integration Pilot Program Resources Presidential Memo Presidential direction to establish a pilot program to enable public/private partnerships to test and evaluate the integration of civil and public UAS operations into the National Airspace System. Federal Register Notice The official public announcement of the program. Screening Information Request Step-by-step instructions on how to submit an application, including what kind of information you need to provide when you…
