The drone industry has been one of the fastest-growing sectors over the last decade. In 2022, the global drone industry was valued at $30.6 billion. While drones used for defense and agriculture make up the largest percentage of the industry, they are being utilized in countless other sectors. One of the slower-moving areas within the drone industry has been their use as delivery vehicles. Ever since Jeff Bezos announced his vision to use drones for last-mile delivery in 2013, the public has been eagerly awaiting flying robots that can bring their heart’s desires in record time.

However, overcoming the intricacies of the logistical requirements to make drone deliveries work has proven to be far more complicated than anyone could have anticipated. The unique circumstances of the pandemic served as a catalyst for developing drone delivery logistics, with companies like Zipline demonstrating that using drones to deliver small packages is indeed feasible. Most early drone deliveries were coordinated between designated loading and offloading sites, with limited options for participating vendors and available items. By 2022, nearly 900,000 drone deliveries had been made in the United States, pushing the drone delivery market’s value to $287.2 million.

While that may seem like a significant number of deliveries, it’s relatively a drop in the bucket compared to the 184 million Amazon Prime members in the United States still waiting for drone deliveries. However, a change is in the air, and on the ground, with a new partnership between Wing and Serve Robotics. As Wing’s CEO, Adam Woodworth, said, ” If you think about existing last-mile delivery, it’s a challenging economic problem.

You have multi-thousand-pound vehicles carrying around a couple of pounds of a meal or a couple of pound box. To achieve a delivery method that’s sustainable, that’s cost-effective, that’s safe, and reliable, you need to better match the size of the vehicle you’re using to carry around the goods that you’re carrying around. It makes much more sense to carry around a 3lb box with a 10lb airplane than it does a 3lb box with a couple thousand-pound car.”

Wing, headquartered in Mountain View, CA, has been leading the way in commercializing delivery drones. They launched their platform through trials in Australia in 2014, primarily delivering food orders. The success of these trials ultimately led the Federal Aviation Administration to grant them the nation’s first drone Air Operator Certificate. By 2022, Wing had completed 50,000 drone deliveries in the United States. Serve Robotics, based in Los Angeles, CA, was founded in 2021 by Dr. Ali Kashani and Dmitry Demeshchuk. The pair took a different approach to enabling drone deliveries by shifting the focus from the sky to the ground.

Rather than using aerial drones, Serve Robotics deploys autonomous ground drones. As stated on the company’s Crunchbase profile, “Serve Robotics develops self-driving robotic carriers to deliver and serve food. The company’s zero-emissions rovers are designed to serve people in public spaces, starting with food delivery.” A spin-off from Uber, Serve Robotics has been delivering for Uber Eats for over two years throughout Los Angeles. During the summer of 2024, they also began delivering for Shake Shack in Los Angeles. Now they are ready to partner with Wing to realize the full potential of last-mile drone delivery.

Complete details of the partnership have yet to be made public. What is known is that the trial program will take place in Dallas, TX. Serve Robotics will pick up an Uber Eats delivery from a restaurant and transport it to a Wing drone, where an Autoloader will autonomously transfer the package from the robot to the drone. The drone will then make the final delivery. “We’re excited to partner with Wing to offer a multi-modal delivery experience that expands our market from roughly half of all food deliveries within 2 miles of a restaurant to offering 30-minute autonomous delivery across an entire city,” said Dr. Kashani.

“Together, Serve and Wing share an ambitious vision for reliable and affordable robotic delivery at scale. Our end-to-end robotic delivery solution will be the most efficient mode for the significant majority of deliveries.” While most consumers in the United States have yet to experience drone deliveries, partnerships like the one between Wing and Serve Robotics will surely pave the way for broader possibilities.

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