Digital Trends reports that Deutsche Post claims to be in the middle of testing delivering packages using drones.
Partnering with a pharmacy in Bonn for a week-long pilot project, Deutsche Post spokeswoman Dunja Kuhlmann told the Wall Street Journal its plans were in the early stages, although it had already thought up a rather nice name for its flying machine: the Paketkopter.
“There are a number of scenarios we’re evaluating, including delivering medicine that’s needed quickly, or to hard-to-reach places,” Kuhlmann said.
Various flying restrictions, however, mean the drug-carrying quadcopter can’t launch from, for example, residential areas. In one of its first test flights, the Paketkopter took off from an open space close to the pharmacy, before flying over the Rhine River and landing 0.6 miles (1 km) away on a lawn beside Deutsche Post’s head office.
Unlike Amazon Prime Air, Deutsche Post’s tests were conducted using a manually operated drone.
The flight was manually controlled, as opposed to it being an automated mission using GPS coordinates. Further test flights have been conducted, with the company planning to evaluate the results to determine whether it can incorporate drones into its delivery service.
Leave a Reply