CHINESE e-commerce giant JD.com# has six-rotor drones to cut delivery time for smartphones and food to remote areas where land transport is too expensive or slow, reports Bloomberg.
The day after the company's mid-year sale, a JD.com drone took off from a playground in Xi'an to deliver one of the orders in football-sized box to a village in the mountains to the south.
Like other companies, JD.com is working to develop unmanned aerial vehicles with the strength, range and reliability to deliver goods on a large scale and solve the expensive 'last-mile' problem for couriers.
China's advantage is that its operators face fewer regulatory carriers while they serve the world's biggest e-commerce market.
The regulatory Civil Aviation Administration of China (CC) gave the go-ahead for JD.com and Shenzhen's SF Holding, the country's biggest express delivery company, to start sending packages by drone in certain rural areas.
The idea is to build a network that includes not only small drones for final delivery, but a whole system, including large autonomous fixed-wing planes that take off from small airports or landing strips to ferry bulk shipments between warehouses.
China has more than 590 million 'rural' residents, according to the statistics bureau.
'People living in mountainous regions hardly accessible by ground transportation also have the right to shop!' said Cui Zheng, a manager overseeing JD.com's drone programme in northwest China.
'We are giving them the same shopping experience, same price, by flying drones.'
The race for drone deliveries in China is being fueled by competition between JD.com and rival Alibaba.
Alibaba's lighter business model means it relies on partners to make deliveries, but its logistics division Cainiao has partnered with Beihang Unmanned Aircraft System to develop cargo drones.
In the US, the Department of Transportation in May selected 10 state, local and tribal governments to test commercial drones in partnership with companies including Intel, Uber Technologies and Qualcomm.
One company not listed in the trial was Amazon.com, whose Prime Air unit is a leader in drone delivery development. Amazon has been testing drone deliveries in the UK since 2016.
SF aims to integrate the small last-hop flights with bigger drones relaying goods to distribution centres and traditional cargo planes, to reach a goal of ensuring all deliveries within China are completed in less than 36 hours.
'Drones flying one or two tons of goods on regional routes could bring down transportation costs in underdeveloped areas to a level similar to ground transportation on trunk routes,' said SF vice president Li Dongqi.
Fixed-wing drones would typically operate from small airports used by helicopters, light aircraft and private jets, or from purpose-built landing strips at company warehouses.
JD.com launched its first fixed-wing drone during its annual mid-year shopping bonanza on June 18 and will use it to fly time-sensitive, high value-added goods. SF has been test-flying similar models since last year.
The day after the company's mid-year sale, a JD.com drone took off from a playground in Xi'an to deliver one of the orders in football-sized box to a village in the mountains to the south.
Like other companies, JD.com is working to develop unmanned aerial vehicles with the strength, range and reliability to deliver goods on a large scale and solve the expensive 'last-mile' problem for couriers.
China's advantage is that its operators face fewer regulatory carriers while they serve the world's biggest e-commerce market.
The regulatory Civil Aviation Administration of China (CC) gave the go-ahead for JD.com and Shenzhen's SF Holding, the country's biggest express delivery company, to start sending packages by drone in certain rural areas.
The idea is to build a network that includes not only small drones for final delivery, but a whole system, including large autonomous fixed-wing planes that take off from small airports or landing strips to ferry bulk shipments between warehouses.
China has more than 590 million 'rural' residents, according to the statistics bureau.
'People living in mountainous regions hardly accessible by ground transportation also have the right to shop!' said Cui Zheng, a manager overseeing JD.com's drone programme in northwest China.
'We are giving them the same shopping experience, same price, by flying drones.'
The race for drone deliveries in China is being fueled by competition between JD.com and rival Alibaba.
Alibaba's lighter business model means it relies on partners to make deliveries, but its logistics division Cainiao has partnered with Beihang Unmanned Aircraft System to develop cargo drones.
In the US, the Department of Transportation in May selected 10 state, local and tribal governments to test commercial drones in partnership with companies including Intel, Uber Technologies and Qualcomm.
One company not listed in the trial was Amazon.com, whose Prime Air unit is a leader in drone delivery development. Amazon has been testing drone deliveries in the UK since 2016.
SF aims to integrate the small last-hop flights with bigger drones relaying goods to distribution centres and traditional cargo planes, to reach a goal of ensuring all deliveries within China are completed in less than 36 hours.
'Drones flying one or two tons of goods on regional routes could bring down transportation costs in underdeveloped areas to a level similar to ground transportation on trunk routes,' said SF vice president Li Dongqi.
Fixed-wing drones would typically operate from small airports used by helicopters, light aircraft and private jets, or from purpose-built landing strips at company warehouses.
JD.com launched its first fixed-wing drone during its annual mid-year shopping bonanza on June 18 and will use it to fly time-sensitive, high value-added goods. SF has been test-flying similar models since last year.