Silicon Valley is getting its first drone delivery service to airdrop food and commercial items to local homes, though only the bare essentials (chocolate and Prime-branded drinks) are available right now. California-based Matternet is launching a pilot program for its delivery service in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, California, over two years after receiving Federal Aviation Administration approval for its Model M2 drone.
The delivery platform uses a variant of the M2 drone — currently the only non-military drone certified by the FAA for deliveries in the US, according to Matternet — which is equipped with a tether drop system to lower packages down to customers’ homes. Matternet says the delivery process is fully automated and that the drones can return to a central hub to swap their battery and collect a new package “in under 60 seconds.”
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