Delivery from the sky is once again in conversation as drone delivery startup Manna raise $5.2 million in seed funding ahead of it’s launch in Ireland.
Manna is an aviation-grade B2B drone delivery company and it’s expected to begin rolling out fully autonomous drones in early 2020, starting with Europe before expanding to the US. The company have not shared exactly how they plan to make it all work and with problems already being faced on the drone front there are sure to be some concerns and set backs.
Manna’s drones are said to be operational in all weathers and cannot fly above 500 ft, meaning they are out of the airspace of planes and abiding to just one of the major aviation safety issues being faced.
Initially these particular drones will be used by online meal ordering platforms and restaurants promising consumers a delivery within three minutes.
Will it work?
I’m not sure whether the reliability or convince of the drones would outweigh the initial cost or whether many would want to take the risk and use something so new. In the same way I question parcel delivery drones, how many parcels can a single drone carry and how fast can the thing fly, how big a fleet of drones would be needed and how feasible are drones as a future delivery option for merchants?
In 2017 we wrote about Amazon having plans to implement drone delivery by 2019, I am yet to open the door to one. Last month The Daily Mail did report spotting Amazon carrying out tests on it’s Prime air drones so we will have to wait and see.
“When will I be able to choose Prime Air as a delivery option?
We will deploy when and where we have the regulatory support needed to safely realise our vision. We’re excited about this technology and one day using it to deliver packages to customers around the world in 30 minutes or less.”
– Amazon Prime Air
