If you've browsed the internet (or watched a "future of tech" video) in the last ten years, you've probably heard the promise: drone delivery. That flying utopia where a package containing an iPhone or a burrito arrives straight from the sky, with no delays, no human error, no "did the courier really leave this at your door?" That's Zipline.
Technically, we should be there by now. Amazon launched its Prime Air program back in 2013 with great fanfare. Google (well, Alphabet) followed with “Wing,” UPS with “Flight Forward,” then Flytrex, Dronamics, and a few smaller players. All with the same goal: revolutionizing delivery. Ten years later? You’re still waiting for the courier who missed your street. And then he shows up. Ziplines.
What happened?
Well, a lot. And while the giants are still jumping over hurdles (read: regulations, logistics, safety, reality), one company, completely devoid of the hype and Hollywood presentations, is already crossing the finish line. Its name is Zipline. And if you haven't heard of it yet – it's not your fault. They're too busy saving lives to be jumping at tech conferences.
Flying against reality: Why most drones still don't deliver
Before we get to the winner, let's take a look at the competition. Amazon's Prime Air, for example, is still in testing. It has a huge, loud drone that hovers above the ground and delivers packages. drop it from a height of 15 meters. In ideal conditions. In sunny weather. No wind. In Texas. Great.
Wing (from Alphabet) uses small drones to deliver products in select suburbs in Australia and the US. Their technology is impressive—a hybrid between a plane and a helicopter, quiet, precise. The problem? The coverage is almost laughably limited. Most of us don't live there.
UPS has already taken some concrete steps with Flight Forward – especially in the hospital sector. But it’s more of a “passported express courier” than a solution for the everyday user.
Flytrex? Food. In the US. In some cities. With a steel cable. It's something, but it's still far from a revolution.
All of these attempts get stuck at similar points: drones that are too big, too much noise, complex infrastructure, too high costs, too much bureaucracy, and – let's face it – the user's fear of having their chips fall out of the air and straight into the bush.
And then comes Zipline. Not with promises. With facts.
Zipline doesn't come from Silicon Valley, where everyone is shouting "disruption," but from a more concrete need: how to deliver blood and medicine to remote areas in Rwanda. No roads. No time. No compromises.
From 2016 to today, Zipline drones flew more than 160 million kilometers, made hundreds of thousands of deliveries, saved thousands of lives – and all this without a single accident involving people.
Their first system, Platform 1, was like something out of James Bond: a fixed-wing drone launched with a rubber band that parachuted a package (containing medicine) and then caught back up to the base station with a large tension rope. Crazy? Yes. Does it work? Absolutely.
But the real masterpiece is coming now – Zipline Platform 2.
What does the future of delivery look like?
Platform 2 is a futuristic dance between technology, usability and aesthetics. It is a hybrid drone with floating propellers, which releases a small, autonomous robot – Zip – from its interior. This Zip floats to the ground, orients itself using visual sensors, opens the bottom, places the package with the precision of a dinner plate, and it goes back up. No shaking. No hard landing. No, ahem, ruined burritos.
The entire system weighs 25 kilograms, mostly made of carbon fiber and foam. It travels at a speed of 112 km/h, has a range of about 30 kilometers, and best of all – is quiet. So quiet that it doesn't even wake up the neighborhood dog.
User? You order in the app. Within minutes, the Zipline appears 100 meters above you, Zip drops the package, and flies away. No interaction. No explaining to the courier where the door is.
Why do they succeed where others falter?
- Accuracy – Zip can deliver to a specific square of land. It doesn't have to "land".
- Silence – while most of the competition still hums like an overheated helicopter, Zipline seeks silence like a ninja.
- Safety – Redundancies in the system allow flight even if two propellers fail. In extreme cases, the parachute opens.
- User experience – no contacting the courier, no “estimated arrival times”, just: order, receive, enjoy.
- Real use – they didn't start by delivering coffee, they started by delivering life-saving supplies. Utility > profit.
Will we ever have that too?
Drone delivery is not ready for everywhere yet. It will not solve logistics in densely populated cities, where every balcony counts as aerial chaos. It will not replace vans for larger packages.
But where it makes sense – rural areas, urgent deliveries, local food – the future is already here. Zipline is not the future. Zipline is the present. We're just waiting to catch it.
Conclusion: Not everything will fall from the sky. But some will.
Drone delivery is not a myth. It's just not a one-size-fits-all solution. But as Zipline shows – in the right context, with the right technology, and with a little less PR hype, it can fly. And deliver. Sometimes lives. Sometimes burritos.
And yes – both count.
