Wing owned by Alphabet (Google) to start drone deliveries in Finland

Wing, owned by Alphabet (Google) will start a drone delivery service in Helsinki the Finnish capital next month. Delivery will be to people in the Vuosaari district the most populous area of the city from the gourmet Herkku Food Market and Cafe Monami,

Limitations on delivery

Wing said in its initial announcement of the trials that the delivery flights would involve a maximum of 10 km in distance with packages weighing 1.5 kg or less. Deliveries are expected to take about ten minutes.

Wing has been carrying out test flights in Teisko just north of Helsinki to make sure the drones are up to flying in harsh weather conditions. Wing also has been holding events in Vuosaari to prepare residents for the sight and sound of drones flying in their neighborhood.

In Australia there have been complaints of noisy drones

In the Bonython area of Canberra some residents are up in arms over the noise of delivery drones. Bonython resident Irena claimed the daily life of her family was severely impacted, and admitted she took her children away from the house for hours each weekend just to escape the sound of drones. Irena said: "With the windows closed, even with double glazing, you can hear the drones. We're worried about the noise issue, the issue about privacy, we're worried about the wildlife that seems to have disappeared from the area — there aren't as many birds as before. From a quarter past seven in the morning we'd hear our first drone flyover and you won't be able to sleep for the rest of the day because the drones are flying from 7am to 4pm."

The group Bonython Against Drones claims that more than 500 people have signed petition that calls on the drones to be banned. The petition and negative reports have not been sufficient to prevent the Australian aviation authority form granting Wing regulatory approval to start making public deliveries.

Wing also has approval from US authorities to begin making deliveries in Virginia in the coming months.

Amazon drone delivery in the doldrums

Amazon's Prime drone delivery service has been quiet. Prime Air did drone deliveries in the UK back in 2016 to much fanfare and another in the US in 2017 but not much seems to have happened recently. However, last year an Amazon spokesperson said that the company remained committed to making drone deliveries a reality.

There have already been commercial medical deliveries in North Carolina.