Mercedes Mulls Delivery Van With Carrier-Pigeon Robots
- Carmaker invests 500 million euros in digital urban transport
- Drones could carry 2-kilogram parcels as far as 10 kilometers
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Mercedes-Benz is looking at mounting automated flying drones onto a new line of electric vans as part of a 500 million-euro ($562 million) investment aimed at speeding delivery times for online orders.
The small pilotless aircraft would be part of a suite of on-board systems, including digital sorting equipment, that could cut both costs and delivery times in half for the final portion of a package’s journey, the carmaker said Wednesday at a presentation in Stuttgart, Germany. The two drones can each fly items weighing as much as 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) as far as 10 kilometers (6 miles), enabling service to difficult-to-reach to places.