Alphabets drone delivery marketplace is waiting for one thing: drones that wont crash

Googles parent company Alphabet has ambitions to open an online marketplace where customers could place orders on food, coffee, and other goods to be delivered by drone, according to The Wall Street Journal. Alphabets X division, the moonshot factory where the companys most outrageous ideas are sent to sink or swim, has apparently met with

Google’s parent company Alphabet has ambitions to open an online marketplace where customers could place orders on food, coffee, and other goods to be delivered by drone, according to The Wall Street Journal. Alphabet’s X division, the “moonshot factory” where the company’s most outrageous ideas are sent to sink or swim, has apparently met with businesses like Whole Foods, Domino’s, and Starbucks about the service. “Wing Marketplace,” as it’s reportedly being called, would give these companies a way to make deliveries to people’s homes in just a few minutes, with customers paying a $6 “drone delivery fee” on top of the cost of each order.

A major problem stands in the way of setting up this marketplace, though: the drones themselves. Employees have fought over whether it should be more like a quadcopter, or wing-shaped, or both. The current iteration apparently “resembles a catamaran,” according to the WSJ, “with a 5-foot wing laid across two thin poles that each support two rotors and a fin.” But this new design is fraught with problems — former X employees told the WSJ that it has “repeatedly crashed, wandered off, lost power, or tried to land in trees.”

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