Wing, the drone delivery arm of Alphabet, has resumed its first European unmanned aerial system (UAS) delivery project in Helsinki, Finland with a new co-located model.
This is the second location for Wing’s store-to-door model following its projects in Logan City, Australia.
This concept co-locates a drone nest with a store so that it can create a direct connection from the mall stores to a customer via drone delivery. Wing is partnering with Columbus Shopping Centre in the area of Vuosaari, which is a densely populated, central urban area within Helsinki.
The nest is located on the top of the shopping center parking structure and can be used to deliver food, household goods and parts to surrounding neighborhoods such as Marjaniemi and Puotila. Wing will also deliver to public picnic spots located in Uutela canal, Lilla Kallvik and Mustankivenpuisto parks in Helsinki.
Currently, Wing is conducting residential deliveries in the region Wednesday through Sunday and to picnic spots on Saturday and Sunday.
Wing made significant progress in drone deliveries last year, completing more than 140,000 deliveries, a 600% increase over 2020, with the majority of these flights taking place in Logan City, Australia. Since then, Wing has eclipsed the 200,000 threshold of commercial deliveries making one delivery every 25 seconds.
The company also launched its first metro drone service in Dallas, Texas, with operations co-located and integrated with local retail locations including Walgreens. The company also released its free drone-flyer app, called OpenSky, to make it easier for drone flyers to require permission to fly in controlled airspace.
In the video, a Wing drone is seen being loaded with goods from the Columbus Shopping Centre and taking off to Finnish customers at one of the picnic spots where the drone drops a package to users with the goods inside.