Drone Delivery is Live Today, and It’s 90% Cheaper than Car-Based Services

upstart writes:

Drone Delivery Is Live Today, And It's 90% Cheaper Than Car-Based Services:

Amazon may be failing to deliver on its promises of drone delivery programs. But a home-grown Irish company is running live autonomous drone delivery right now in Galway, Ireland, has licenses to take it across the European Union, and is poised to - at the right moment - take its tech and knowhow across the Atlantic.

To Canada, at least.

Regulation in the U.S. is too far behind the times.

"We're delivering coffees," Manna CEO Bobby Healy told me in a recent episode of the TechFirst podcast. "We're delivering burgers and fries. We're delivering ice cream, broccoli, melon, you name it, we're delivering it. And it arrives perfect, you know, piping hot coffee, foam intact, little design on top of the foam still intact."

Manna is doing 2,000 to 3,000 flights a day using fully autonomous suitcase-sized drones that fly at 50 miles an hour - that's 80 km/hour in Ireland - at an altitude of 150 to 200 feet. Near your home, it'll scan the area with lidar and radar to find a safe spot, descend, drop off your delivery, and whiz back for its next pick-up.

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