Walmart tests delivery drones in effort to keep up with Amazon

Walmart has started testing delivery drones in Fayetteville, in an effort to keep up with Amazon, whose subsidiary Amazon Prime Air recently received FAA-approval to deliver packages by drone under their certification.

Walmart tests delivery drones in an effort to keep up with Amazon

is seemingly going all out to keep up with Amazon. The world’s largest retailer has started testing delivery drones in Fayetteville, North Carolina. This news follows the recent announcement of that its subsidiary Amazon Prime Air had received a Part-135 certification from the Federal Aviation Administration () that allows it to deliver packages by drone to consumers around the country.

According to Bloomberg, Walmart will start with testing the of grocery and household items from its stores in Fayetteville. The unmanned aircraft that will be flying the packages are automated drones from startup Flytrex Aviation Ltd. These drones can fly about 6.2 miles while carrying packages weighing up to 6.6 pounds.

Apart from trying to keep up with Amazon with drone delivery services, Walmart will also be launching a service similar to the Amazon Prime subscription. It will be called Walmart+ and will start on September 15th for $98ย  per year.

The two companies have both gained millions of new customers during the pandemic, Bloomberg reports. Now they are looking for ways to deliver groceries and other items to people’s homes in the most convenient way.

โ€œWe know that it will be some time before we see millions of packages delivered via drone,โ€ Tom Ward, Walmart’s senior vice president of customer products, said in a blog post. โ€œThat still feels like a bit of science fiction, but we’re at a point where we’re learning more and more about the technology that is available and how we can use it to make our customers’ lives easier.โ€

During an investor meeting in October 2017, Walmart mentioned for the first time that it was testing drones to help manage inventory in some of its Sam’s Club warehouse locations.

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Haye Kesteloo
Haye Kesteloo

Haye Kesteloo is a leading drone industry expert and Editor in Chief of DroneXL.co and EVXL.co, where he covers drone technology, industry developments, and electric mobility trends. With over nine years of specialized coverage in unmanned aerial systems, his insights have been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, and cited by The Brookings Institute, Foreign Policy, Politico and others.

Before founding DroneXL.co, Kesteloo built his expertise at DroneDJ. He currently co-hosts the PiXL Drone Show on YouTube and podcast platforms, sharing industry insights with a global audience. His reporting has influenced policy discussions and been referenced in federal documents, establishing him as an authoritative voice in drone technology and regulation. He can be reached at haye @ dronexl.co or @hayekesteloo.

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