Last week, you went behind the scenes with me to tour a Wing drone delivery facility. But what are the other big players in the drone delivery space up to? The Zipline Platform 2 aircraft is set to be the next big thing in drone delivery. And now, we have footage showing not a prototype, but the actual, working drone.
Zipline shared a behind-the-scenes look with us in a 12-minute video posted to their YouTube channel in September 2024:
It’s a bit of marketing fluff, sure. But it does reveal some critical details about their upcoming Platform 2 (P2) system, which it plans to launch in Dallas later this year. This isn’t a blue sky vision either. Zipline says the aircraft highlighted in the video is already in production.
Zipline first revealed its Platform 2 drone to the public back in March 2023. The first-of-its-kind delivery concept uses a multi-robot system with both a Zip (that’s the drone itself) and a second, autonomous delivery droid. When the Zip flies to its destination, it hovers overhead as an autonomous delivery droid maneuvers down a tether, steers to the correct location, and gently drops off its package.
The video shows the multi-robot system in action. You see testing zones, like a mock backyard filled with lawn furniture and kiddie toys so the drone can test obstacle avoidance. At about the 7-minute mark, you’ll see the loading facility.
And perhaps even cooler is the 8-minute mark, where you go into the manufacturing facility. Zipline has ambitious plans to be able to produce a delivery drone (called a Zip) every hour by 2025.
The company also shared some images of the three types of docks its using:
What is the current state of drone delivery?
While Zipline has certainly claimed successes — including making more than one million deliveries — the drone delivery isn’t without its challenges. Another American drone delivery company, DroneUp, has been in a bit of a rough patch after laying off nearly 20% of its employees last month and shutting down its drone delivery operations outside of those in Texas. (Texas, aka the Drone Star State, offers one of the most favorable drone delivery environments). Amazon has barely run made a dent in drone delivery innovation — despite being one of the first companies to even get involved in the space.
But clearly it’s not all bad news. Zipline, which is already considered world’s largest drone delivery service, has big (and promising) plans to grow even bigger.
What’s next for Zipline?
Zipline has about 80 million autonomous miles under its belt since the company launched 10 years ago.
Upon launch of the new Platform 2, Zipline will primarily work with Walmart, which has been a big investor in drone delivery. Walmart is a big investor in DroneUp. It’s a huge partner for Wing and Zipline in Texas already. Walmart even added a critical mobile feature that enables you to specify drone delivery as your preferred transportation method when you shop online through the Walmart app.
But that’s not all. Zipline also shared that it has partners onboard including Sweetgreen, Cleveland Clinic, Panera Bread, Mendocino Farms, Intermountain Health, OhioHealth and Jet’s Pizza.
Most of the immediate action will happen in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. But Zipline says its Platform 2 will launch in even more cities across the U.S. For now, Zipline has announced plans to grow beyond Dallas to cities including Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Houston, Salt Lake City and Seattle. It already operates in Pea Ridge, Arkansas (it’s been there since 2021), as well as other cities around the world.
If you’re in one of those aforementioned other cities, get on the waitlist now.
Oh, and if you really can’t get enough of Zipline, the company released a 44-minute cut of the same video shared above. Watch it below:
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