Matternet and Mercedes-Benz are teaming up to test a delivery solution using drones and luxury vehicles.
The Mercedes Vision Van features an automated cargo space and drones that can fly off for autonomous air deliveries. The electric vehicle has a range up to 168 miles, and allows a human driver to share the responsibility of package delivery with two drones.
“With our Vision Van, we are going beyond the vehicle,” Volker Mornhinweg, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans, said in a statement. “We have been working closely to Matternet to create the world’s first fully connected and automated cargo van with integrated delivery drones.”
With the Vision Van, algorithms will control order picking, the loading of packages, and route planning for the human driver and the drone. A special racking system can load up a truck in one fell swoop, while a package dispenser means the driver can just reach back and pick up the box; no rooting around in the truck.
While a human is dropping off something at your doorstep, the truck’s two M2 drones can deliver packages up to 4 pounds within a six-mile radius, though the drones can fly as far as 12 miles, Matternet says
Mercedes will have some competition in the drone-delivery space from the likes of Amazon and Google. Amazon has been working on PrimeAir since at least 2013, while Project Wing from Google parent company Alphabet will soon take flight at a Federal Aviation Administration unmanned aircraft system test site.
