Drone Delivery in Switzerland

Matternet, a drone-delivery company based in Silicon Valley’s Menlo Park California, has recently joined forces with Daimler, as well as the government of Switzerland, to bring rolling distribution hubs for aerial package delivery. While the initial focus of the initiative was on the speedy delivery of time-sensitive lifesaving medical supplies, a shift to testing the consumer market Matternet, a drone-delivery company based in Silicon Valley’s Menlo Park California, has recently joined forces with Daimler, as well as the government of Switzerland, to bring rolling distribution hubs for aerial package delivery. While the initial focus of the initiative was on the speedy delivery of time-sensitive lifesaving medical supplies, a shift to testing the consumer market has taken hold. Over 100 successful drone drop-offs to strategically placed vans in Zurich have shipped everyday items like ground coffee and cellphones. Mercedes Benz’s Vito is the first production vehicle in the world to be specifically designed as a mobile receiving station and land site for electric powered drones operating on a fully automated network.

Since 2015, Matternet and Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, have been exploring the use of vans as rolling distribution hubs for aerial package delivery. In March of 2017, Matternet was granted authorization to operate its drones over densely populated areas of Switzerland, an approval which was a world’s first. Not only have more than 100 drop-offs been successful, they were completed with a perfect safety record and more deliveries are planned for 2018. (Check out the full process on YouTube: How it Works)

Matternet’s investment in Switzerland has shown us that drone delivery is not only possible, it is happening right now. While the relative land area of Switzerland is small, its terrain poses numerous challenges, specifically the mountainous stretches which makes up 60% of the country's land area. By introducing the Vito variable to the drone-delivery equation, questions of distance and local control are addressed. As more tests are conducted and the safety record remains impeccable, this model would be something that Canadian regulators would do well to consider when crafting current legislation. This multi-lateral ongoing project will be closely scrutinized as 2018 progresses.

Canadian Drones Save Lives

While unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may not be a big part of your life right now, one day they just might save it.

In May 2013, the Saskatchewan RCMP reported the first life saved by a UAV in Canada. A man driving in near-freezing temperatures wearing only a t-shirt had flipped his car off the road in a remote, wooded area.  The man managed to call 911 but did not know where he was so only the last recorded location on his cell phone’s GPS was used. The police had originally deployed a regular, manned helicopter equipped with night vision to try and find him, but they weren't able to during an initial sweep of the area.

The RCMP eventually deployed their Draganflyer X4-E5 UAV which was equipped with an infrared camera. The UAV soon picked up three heat signatures 200 meters from the last known GPS location, where fire department members found the driver curled next to a tree.  According to the RCMP’s website that without the UAV, searchers would not have been able to locate the driver until daylight meaning he would have frozen to death before he could have been reached.

UAV’s are still in their genesis when it comes to bringing life-saving supplies to remote areas. Germany’s logistics company DHL will begin daily flights with their quad-rotor "DHL Paketkopter 2.0" to bring a maximum load of 1.2 kilograms of medicine to the sparsely populated German island of ‘Juist,’ located just off the nation’s northern coast. Flying up to 65kmph with the flight expected to take as long as 30 minutes, this is the first time an unmanned aircraft has been authorized to deliver goods in Europe. With medication, other urgently needed goods will also be transported, at times when other modes of transport such as flights or ferries are not operating.