Google Unveils Secret Drone-Delivery Project
"Project Wing" has been in development for more than two years at Google X, the company's secretive research lab.
Google unveiled its drone-delivery service called "Project Wing" on Thursday to the Atlantic.
Project Wing has been in development for more than two years at Google X, the company's secretive lab for new products, such as the self-driving car.
The test drones have been used to successfully deliver goods from neighboring farms in Queensland, Australia.
Australia was chosen by Google as the location for Project Wing because of the country's "progressive" laws on drones, which are more tightly regulated in other nations.
Google's drones are pre-programmed to fly to their destination, which differs from other drone models that are remotely controlled by someone on the ground.
Google said its longterm goal for drones is to be able to quickly deliver disaster relief and other materials in emergency situations to isolated ares.
"Even just a few of these, being able to shuttle nearly continuously could service a very large number of people in an emergency situation," said Astro Teller, who works as Captain for Google X on their big-thinking projects department called Moonshots.
The idea was originally developed as away to deliver defibrillator kits to people having heart attacks.
Google said eventually it might use the drones to deliver goods to consumers, which is an idea already in the works by Amazon.
Amazon has asked the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to fly drone tests, and the U.S. Senate has held hearings to consider the future of drones.
Watch the full video from Google on Project Wing:
View this video on YouTube
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Michelle Broder Van Dyke is a breaking news reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Honolulu.
Contact Michelle Broder Van Dyke at michelle@buzzfeed.com.
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