Walmart Zipline Drone Delivery Launches in Royse City as 17th DFW Location

Walmart and Zipline have launched drone delivery service in Royse City, Texas, adding another suburb to what is quietly becoming America’s largest commercial drone delivery network. The announcement, made Monday, marks the 17th location in the Dallas-Fort Worth region where customers can receive groceries and household essentials dropped from the sky.

Customers living near the Walmart Supercenter at 494 Interstate 30 can now receive up to 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg) of items by drone in as little as 30 minutes, according to the Royse City Herald-Banner. The service includes thousands of products such as fresh and frozen foods, pantry staples, and baby formula.

City officials and first responders received the first ceremonial delivery, the ingredients for a steak dinner, to mark the rollout in this Rockwall County suburb about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Dallas.

Zipline’s safety record speaks volumes

Zipline, the California-based robotics company powering these deliveries, brings an impressive track record to Royse City. The company’s autonomous, all-electric aircraft have flown more than 120 million commercial miles across four continents and delivered more than 18 million products without a serious injury.

The delivery drones include multiple layers of safety systems, with redundant hardware, FAA-approved Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations, and continuous in-flight monitoring that performs more than 500 safety checks per second. The aircraft can automatically return to base, request maintenance, or deploy a parachute if needed.

“Autonomous delivery is finally ready for national scale in the US,” Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton has said of the partnership with Walmart. “Zipline is excited to enable Walmart’s vision of providing customer delivery so fast it feels like teleportation.”

Expanding across Dallas-Fort Worth

The Royse City launch expands Walmart and Zipline’s drone network in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, where the companies already operate in several other cities. Greenville, located about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Dallas, began operations earlier this year.

Other DFW locations with Zipline service include Mesquite, Waxahachie, McKinney, Kaufman, Bedford, Weatherford, and Lewisville. Together with Wing, Google’s drone delivery subsidiary that also partners with Walmart, the retailer aims to offer drone delivery to approximately 75% of the DFW population, roughly 1.8 million households.

Since launching drone delivery in 2021, Walmart has completed more than 150,000 deliveries within minutes. The company is now scaling operations to 100 additional stores in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa, making it the first retailer to offer drone delivery across five states.

How Zipline’s delivery system works

Zipline’s Platform 2 system uses a dual-component design. The primary aircraft, called a Zip, handles long-distance transport at speeds up to 70 mph (113 km/h). Upon arrival, it hovers at approximately 300 feet (91 meters) above the delivery location.

A smaller delivery droid then descends via tether to place packages with what CEO Rinaudo Cliffton calls “dinner plate-level accuracy.” This approach keeps the main aircraft safely at altitude while enabling precise deliveries to backyards, front porches, or other designated spots.

Zipline manufactures its drones in South San Francisco, a detail that’s become increasingly relevant as tariff discussions continue and the DJI ban debate heats up. The company’s fully autonomous, zero-emission aircraft eliminate fuel costs associated with traditional delivery vans.

DroneXL’s Take

While Washington debates banning DJI and media outlets chase mystery drone hysteria, Walmart is quietly building something remarkable: America’s largest commercial drone delivery network using proven, made-in-USA technology.

The contrast with Amazon Prime Air could not be starker. Amazon has stumbled through sensor failures that caused crashes, a two-month operational pause, a recent crane collision in Arizona, and a cable-snagging incident in Texas. The company abandoned College Station after noise complaints and still has just a handful of active locations.

Meanwhile, Zipline keeps expanding. Last month brought McKinney as the 15th DFW city. This week, Atlanta joined the network as part of Walmart’s five-state expansion. The 120 million autonomous miles with zero serious injuries isn’t just a statistic, it’s a safety dataset that no competitor can match.

This is what the drone revolution actually looks like: not flying cars or Blade Runner fantasies, but a Hot Pockets delivery landing in a Texas townhome complex within 30 minutes. It’s mundane, practical, and expanding rapidly while regulators and politicians chase phantom threats.

Zipline chose Dallas-Fort Worth as its first major U.S. metro operations center for good reasons: business-friendly environment, strong municipal support, and a population density that makes commercial drone delivery viable. That bet is paying off.

What do you think about Walmart’s expanding drone delivery network? Share your thoughts in the comments below.