Zipline starts first commercial US drone deliveries with Walmart partnership in Arkansas

Walmart and drone delivery company Zipline are launching a delivery service in Pea Ridge, Arkansas — the first commercial drone delivery service offered by Zipline in the US. Customers will be able to choose from “thousands of products,” though are restricted to health and wellness items like “over the counter allergy medicine, bandages, ibuprofen.”

The project’s launch shows there’s continuing belief in the potential of drones to perform commercial deliveries. But the technology’s slow rate of adoption (Walmart first tested drone deliveries back in 2015) and the lack of large-scale implementations (the Pea Ridge service only covers a 50-mile radius) also shows there are plenty of questions to be answered if drone deliveries are to...

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