Google’s drone subsidiary, Wing, has partnered with Coles to bring those on the Gold Coast their groceries via a bird-like delivery service.
The Coles drone delivery expansion into Queensland follows a pilot program Wing launched in Canberra earlier this year. The trial saw Coles co-locate its products at Wing’s drone delivery facility.
Since the Canberra pilot program began in March 2022, Wing said more than 5,000 Coles deliveries have been made.
From Wednesday, November 2, this luxury will be extended those in the Gold Coast suburbs of Ormeau, Ormeau Hills and Yatala. The drone delivery service will take off from the Coles store at Ormeau Village Shopping Centre. Wing hopes to expand the service to other nearby suburbs in the near future.
While not everything will be on offer, there are 500 Coles items you can order, such as bread, fresh produce, convenience meals, snacks, health care items and household essentials.
As part of the expansion into South East Queensland, Wing will also soon be offering Coles items for delivery from the rooftop of Grand Plaza in Logan, Queensland.
Wing has been operating its drone delivery service in certain parts of Queensland and the ACT since 2019. The convenience of a drone delivering things proved popular, particularly during lockdown/times when people weren’t overly enthused about leaving their homes. Wing has gone as far as calling Logan the drone delivery capital of the world.
Wing has grown massively since its launch in Australia but it’s still not available everywhere. In fact, Wing is only operating in three countries right now — Australia, Finland and the United States.
It’s a pretty rad approach to contactless delivery (and everyone loves a gimmick) but not everyone is happy about it. Mostly birds.
But, powerlines are also proving to be a nemesis for Wing’s drones, with an unmanned delivery vehicle landing on power lines in Brisbane last month, frying itself with 11,000 volts of electricity. As a result more than 2,000 homes and businesses briefly went dark.
Wing has already made more than 120,000 deliveries in Australia this year.