Drone deliveries come true as China takes the lead

[BEIJING] The day after the mid-year sale of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc., a company drone took off from a playground in Xi & # City 39; year to deliver one of the orders in a football box to a village in the mountains to the south

The six-rotor gear is one of 40 that JD.com has designed to reduce delivery times for items such as smartphones and food in remote areas where land transport is too expensive or slow. ] JD.com brings together racing companies from around the world to develop unmanned aerial vehicles with the strength, reach and reliability needed to deliver large-scale goods and solve the expensive 'last mile' problem of couriers.

apart from its ability to assemble all the other parts needed for drone deliveries, including regulations, infrastructure and the largest e-commerce market in the world.

And for everything to work together, he needs data. , the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has given the green light to JD.com and SF Holding, the country's largest express delivery company, to start sending parcels by drone in some rural areas.

The idea is to build a network comprising not only small drones for final delivery, but an entire system, including large stand-alone fixed-wing aircraft that take off from small airports or runways. landing to transport bulk shipments between warehouses.

The advantage of China is the market. The country has both advanced drone technologies and millions of consumers living in remote areas hard to reach – sometimes impossible to reach – by truck.

China has more than 590 million "rural" residents by the end of 2017 According to the Bureau of Statistics

"The inhabitants of mountain areas hard to reach by road transport are also allowed to shop", said Cui Zheng, head of the JD drone program in northwestern China. "We give them the same shopping experience, the same price, by flying drones." The race for drone deliveries in China is fueled by competition between JD.com and rival Alibaba

. to make deliveries, but its Cainiao logistics division is associated with Beihang Unmanned Aircraft System to develop cargo drones. A model being developed by the drone company is capable of carrying a ton of goods over 1,500 km.

The Alibaba Transportation Department was authorized in May to test drones in a large industrial area.

In the United States, the Ministry of Transport selected 10 state, local and tribal governments in May to test commercial drones in partnership with companies. Intel, Uber Technologies and Qualcomm

Amazon.com, whose Prime Air unit is a leader in the development of drone delivery, was not listed in the test list. Amazon has been testing UAV deliveries in the UK since 2016.

The use of drones by JD.com and SF is still only a small fraction of their operations, but for the Chinese government, technology offers a way to help reduce poverty It could also make China a model for other governments seeking to draft regulations for future swarms of civilian drones.

This is "a key opportunity for CAAC to obtain a civil aviation administration said in a written response to Bloomberg News.

JD.com, which has accumulated more than 5,000 hours of drone flight, said the cost of delivering parcels in the rural backwaters JD.com and SF will not say what one could save in flying drones, but they expect costs to be lower than those of human deliveries once the technology is ready for use. sca

In an extreme case, a courier has to go up and down a mountain for four hours to deliver a parcel to a village on the edge of a cliff, Cui said. A drone can make the trip in minutes.

SF aims at integrating small last-flight flights with larger drones relaying goods to traditional distribution centers and cargo planes, to ensure that all deliveries to China are completed in less than UAVs carrying one or two tons of goods on regional roads could lower transport costs in underdeveloped areas to the same level as land transport on main roads, "said Li Dongqi, vice president of the group.

Fixed-wing drones generally operate from small airports used by helicopters, light aircraft and private jets, or from landing lanes built for this purpose in aircraft warehouses. business. -Year shopping bonanza on June 18 and will use it to steal sensitive goods with high added value. SF has been testing similar models since last year.

In March, CAAC issued regulations on commercial drones that require operators to apply for a license for gears used for aerial spraying, imaging, and performance

. The rules do not apply to drones for deliveries or passenger transport, for which the regulator still collects data before drafting the rules: "It would be too hard to regulate the big drones of the same way as piloted planes ". adding that many current safety requirements, such as survival equipment and billboards, would not be necessary for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

Governments in other countries are also developing rules, but enormous challenges remain. In the United States, regulators are trying to find ways to create a low-level air traffic system to ensure that drones do not collide with each other or with traditional aircraft. Other problems include a standard for communicating with the craft, security and privacy.

Even in China, the CAAC does not allow drones to fly at night, in the rain or in a lighter breeze. "We have to look for more places for drones to fly to test its capability, identify risks and understand how to respond to these risks," said Li from SF. CAAC can only produce a clear set of rules for larger drones from data collected during test flights, he said.

Cui said that getting bigger drones will be a priority for JD.com this year. The company also has testing services for UAVs in Tanzania, Indonesia and Thailand.

Li said that SF is seeking approval from CAAC to launch more testing in sparsely populated areas, especially for larger drones. rules, "said Cui of JD.com. "There is chaos and uncertainty, but eventually there must be regulations."

BLOOMBERG