This order will be delivered by drone
On May 18, a drone carrying hamburgers and coffee took off at the designated berth of Wanli Times shopping mall in Shangrao city, Jiangxi province. Ten minutes later, the drone landed smoothly in the square of the digital Industry College of Jiangxi Normal University, and the consignee Zhang Wei took his takeout. This is the first commercial drone delivery route officially opened in Jiangxi Province.
With the acceleration of the low-altitude economy "take off", many places in the country have opened drone delivery routes, and drone delivery has gradually become a daily life scene. According to the data, Meituan drones have landed on 28 routes in Shanghai, Shenzhen and other cities, and completed more than 250,000 orders in total.
Taste the "airdrop food"
How to enjoy more food when visiting scenic spots and parks? Ordering a takeaway and having it delivered by drone is becoming an option for more people.
On April 30, the first drone delivery route in Shenzhen Park was officially launched in Shenzhen Central Park. The route takes Shenye Shangcheng business District as the starting point, and drops more than 1,000 kinds of commodities such as milk tea and hamburgers to Shenzhen Central Park, 2 kilometers away. When tourists place an order on their mobile phones and see the prompt "drone has received the order", they can wait for the delivery to "fall from the sky", and the delivery fee of the drone is the same as that of the ordinary order.
After receiving the user's order, the staff goes to the business to pick up the goods and send them to the departure airport, the drone loads the goods according to the route planned by the background system, and sends the goods to the intelligent drop cabinet at the destination. The user opens the box of the drop cabinet by scanning the phone code.
Ms. Zhang, a Shenzhen citizen, and her family often camp in the central park on weekends. Preparing food for the family is a time-consuming and laborious task. "I also tried ordering take-out, but it was too much trouble to get it." Ms. Zhang said. In the past, citizens and tourists placed takeout orders in the park, because the park attractions were scattered, and the delivery in the park relied on the takeout man on foot, there were widespread problems of difficult positioning and slow delivery. For some closed parks and scenic spots, delivery workers can not go in, users can only go to the park, scenic entrance to pick up food. After tasting the drone delivery, Ms. Zhang said: "Just go to the air drop cabinet in the park to pick up food, very convenient!"
Drone delivery is becoming a new way for scenic spots to attract tourists. Changbai Mountain scenic area in Jilin Province launched a "drone delivery package", which includes a one-night hotel room, a drone delivery package for two people and related fun items at the resort. Beijing's Yanqing district is pushing to open its logistics scene to drones. Tourists will soon be able to drink coffee delivered by drones when they climb the Badaling Great Wall, said Chen Xin, deputy director of the Yanqing District Science and Technology Commission. On May 1, a drone logistics route opened in Hefei, Anhui province. Tourists can experience the "airdrop food" service at scenic spots such as Binhu National Forest Park and shore grassland. Today, drone delivery services have covered scenic spots, parks, campuses, office areas and other scenes. The relevant person in charge of Jingdong logistics said that with the construction of low-altitude service infrastructure gradually in place, the average transportation cost of drone delivery will be rapidly diluted and a mature business model will be formed.
Ease distribution pressure
Drone delivery improves the immediate delivery ability of the business circle, reduces the pressure on regional order delivery, and is generally welcomed by merchants.
In December 2023, the Meituan drone team opened the first low-altitude logistics distribution route in the central city of Shanghai in Shanghai Wujiaochang business Circle. As an important supplement to transport capacity in the area, drones cooperate with delivery personnel to complete daily delivery work. Delivery time within a 3km radius is generally no more than 15 minutes.
"Within the scope of Meituan drone delivery service and operation period, when users place orders for goods that can be delivered by drones, the background intelligent scheduling system analyzes and calculates the real-time order situation, and assigns orders with high distribution difficulty or high timeliness requirements to drones for completion." The head of the drone operation of the United States Group said that the mode of working together with the rider can better relieve the pressure of order distribution in traffic congestion.
Xiao Yang Sheng Jian is the first batch of catering businesses in Wujiaochang business district to access drone delivery. Fan Xiaojiao, manager of the Hesheng Hui Shop, said: "The length of delivery time directly affects the taste of Sheng Sheng. The drone will quickly deliver the sheng jian to the customers, and the taste will be better."
Drone delivery has significantly improved the efficiency of instant delivery. According to the data, in 2023, the average delivery time of UAVs is about 20 minutes, which is nearly 40% more efficient than the traditional delivery mode.
Drone delivery services also bring new opportunities to the business community. Recently, Shenzhen Longhua One square world business district opened drone delivery services. After packing the goods of about 20 well-known brands in the business circle of One Square world, the fastest 5 minutes can be delivered to the designated landing point. Among the merchants accessing the drone delivery service, many are the "first store" opened by national well-known brands in Southern China, hoping to explore the new model of "low-altitude economy + first-store economy". "Drone delivery services bring new profit growth points and competitiveness to brick-and-mortar stores." The relevant person in charge of one party heaven said.
Multiple security
Drone delivery needs to fly over bustling urban areas, how to ensure safety?
Since January 1 this year, the Interim Regulations on the Flight Management of Unmanned Aircraft have been officially implemented, strengthening the management of civilian unmanned aircraft and their pilots, standardizing the establishment of airspace and flight activities, and strengthening supervision and management and emergency response. The relevant person in charge of the Civil Aviation Administration of China introduced: "The Civil Aviation Administration has initially established the general aviation standard regulation system, approved the pilot reform of multiple fields of general aviation, covering more than 80% of the provinces, and issued more than 10 regulatory documents in the field of unmanned aviation."
In recent years, DJI, Fengyi Technology, Meituan and other enterprises have carried out a series of technological innovations in the safety of drone delivery. Dji carrier drone FlyCart 30, with AR (augmented reality) projection function, to achieve accurate delivery of goods; The Fengyi ARK40 UAV is equipped with high-precision automatic landing and obstacle avoidance systems; The fourth-generation UAVs can fly stably in conditions ranging from 50 degrees Celsius to minus 20 degrees Celsius, moderate rain, moderate snow, and force 6 wind.
On May 18, the first urban drone logistics route in Fujian province was opened in Fuzhou High-tech Zone, and soon citizens will experience drone delivery services. The person in charge of Hangzhou Xunyi Technology Co., LTD., which is responsible for the route operation, said that the design of the drone takes the way of adding backup systems to enhance safety. For example, the power system is redundant, and any motor or blade failure can still maintain flight; Redundant energy system, dual batteries in parallel, any battery failure can still maintain flight; The control system is redundant, and the flight can still be maintained if the main control or either flight control fails.
The ongoing 2024 Chengdu World Horticultural Expo has set up five drone delivery routes in the main venue, and eight stations in Chengdu Time Street, Tianfu Habitat Museum, Magic Forest and other venues. According to Liu Yanhong, deputy general manager of Sichuan Xiangpeng Zhihang Technology Co., LTD., a drone delivery operator, each station is equipped with security guards to carry out safety checks on drones. Before the drone takes off, security guards need to provide three real-time photos to the backstage control center. After the safety status is confirmed by the backstage control center, the drone can take of