Wing, the drone delivery service owned by Alphabet, is teaming up with Walmart to offer deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. In an announcement on Thursday, Walmart says the partnership will allow the retailer to deliver to an additional 60,000 homes.
In the coming weeks, Wing will start delivering out of a Walmart Supercenter in Frisco, Texas, before expanding to a second nearby store by the end of this year. The company will make deliveries to homes within six miles of the stores, with deliveries arriving “in under 30 minutes.” Even though Wing says the drones are “highly automated,” operators will still keep an eye on them from a remote location.
Walmart has been experimenting with drone delivery for quite some time now. In addition to Wing, the company has partnered with DroneUp, Zipline, and Flytrex to offer drone deliveries to millions of households in the US. Walmart currently offers drone deliveries in 36 stores across seven states and has completed 10,000 successful deliveries — far outpacing the deliveries made by Amazon’s drone program.
As for what products are eligible for delivery through Wing, the drone company says it’s working with Walmart “to offer everything from full lunches to quick afternoon snacks or over-the-counter medicines.” That apparently even includes a carton of eggs, as Wing says the tether its drones use is gentle enough to transport “delicate items.”
Once the service launches, Wing will offer deliveries from Walmart six days per week (excluding Wednesdays) from 10:30AM to 6:30PM. If you’re in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, you can download Wing’s mobile app to see if your home is eligible.
