Google delivery plans take flight

Amazon and Walmart will not have all the drone delivery fun to themselves, after all.



Google plans to start offering drone delivery in 2017. David Vos, leader of the “Project Wing” drone delivery initiative overseen by Google holding company Alphabet, discussed Google’s drone plans during a recent air traffic control convention in Washington, D.C.



According to Vos, Google is currently in discussion with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other entities to create a drone air traffic control system. The system would be based on cellular and Internet technologies and regulate drones flying at altitudes of less than 500 ft.



Project Wing initially launched in Australia in 2014, and has since also been tested in the U.S. in cooperation with NASA. Cooperation with the federal government hasn’t ended there, as Vos also serves as co-chair of a task force designated by the FAA to develop a drone registry, which is targeted to launch Dec. 20.



Three of the world’s most influential companies, in or out of retail, are all eyeing drone deliveries within the next couple of years. Add in the fact the federal government seems willing to allow some level of drone delivery with proper regulation, and it should be a matter of if, not when, delivery drones are whizzing overhead.