In a bid to get in on the growing drone delivery business model, Google unveiled plans to join this market segment by 2017. This is according to revelations from David Vos, project leader, during an air traffic conference in Washington today.
Dubbed Project Wing, the project aims to introduce fully-autonomous air delivery to the public following testing in Australia. This comes on the heels of Amazon and Wal-Mart’s recent announcements regarding upcoming integration of drones into their business models.
The design of these particular drones is different from the usual helicopter-type models, with an upright wing design, and the ability to drop delivered goods via a cord onto the ground.
Safety seems to be the main idea here, since having the delivery drones get too close to people would put them in harm’s way from moving propellers.
Google has also indicated interest in utilizing their drones for emergency services, providing supplies for relief efforts or medical emergencies.
