Drones delivered Slurpees and other snacks from 7-Eleven to customers who live within a one-mile radius of the store in Reno, Nevada.
The pilot program marks the first large-scale commercial delivery via drone in the United States, Recode reported. That means Irving-based 7-Eleven cut through the red tape faster than Amazon’s Prime Air and Alphabet’s Project Wing.
7-Eleven launched 77 flights and all of them made it to their destination.
All the drone flights were done autonomously but were still within line-of-sight of the pilot. NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration are testing low-altitude flights in the Reno area and could implement new traffic control procedures.
Most of the other deliveries by 7-Eleven, Amazon and others were one-off promotional tests.
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R E A D N E X T
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The Irving-based convenience store chain is partnering with robotics company Nuro to deliver goods to customers' doors in Mountain View, via autonomous Priuses. Nuro was the first autonomous vehicle company to receive a deployment permit from the California DMV in December 2020.
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Coming to 7-Eleven's Evolution Store on Park Lane and Abrams Road is the first-ever Laredo Taco Company drive-thru restaurant. It marks the latest innovation at one of the Irving-based retailer's 'lab stores,' an experiential testing ground for patrons to try new concepts.
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A fleet of 16 autonomous robots from San Francisco-based Starship is now rolling across the SMU campus, delivering food from nine campus eateries. The app-controlled, on-demand robots have Mustang branding and can deliver up to 20 pounds of food in "minutes." Starship, co-founded by a former Skype founding engineer, has made over 2.5 million autonomous deliveries worldwide.
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The brave semi-frozen beverage was launched by Irving-based 7-Eleven from one of its stores in Saginaw, Michigan, to honor that state's record Slurpee consumption. The innovative marketing stunt also demonstrated the last-mile benefits of 7-Eleven Delivery.
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Frisco and Little Elm are the first cities to get a new drone delivery service from Wing, a sister company of Google, and Walgreens. The partners will operate on-demand air deliveries that bring essential items straight to your door.
