Walmart drone delivery to extend to Houston, other US cities

Drone delivery being expanded to Houston

A drone may soon be able to deliver that last minute item you need from Walmart right to your doorstep. Walmart is expanding their drone delivery system to Houston and FOX 26's Consumer Reporter Heather Sullivan got to see how it works.

HOUSTON - Maybe you need some cough syrup, baby formula, or even buns for your hot dogs. You could soon order them from Walmart and have a drone deliver them right outside your home in under 30 minutes.

Walmart has announced it is expanding its drone delivery service to 100 stores in Houston, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta and Charlotte. The retailer has been providing drone delivery in Dallas and its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas for the last couple of years.

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Drone delivery from Walmart

What we know:

A company called Wing, owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, will operate the drones.  

Jacob Demmitt of Wing says shoppers will be able to place orders for items up to two-and-a-half pounds, soon to be five pounds, and select drone delivery.

"When the customer checks out, they’ll select a delivery spot. They’ll see a satellite image of their house. They get to pick the exact location where it gets delivered," explained Demmitt.

Demmitt says the drones will fly a few hundred feet in the air, then come down to about 23 feet above the ground to make the delivery.

"All we say is, 'Stand back.' The drone is going to use a tether, and it’s going to lower the package to the ground really slowly and gently. We deliver a lot of eggs, for example, without breaking them," he said.

Big picture view:

We talked with Michael Healander of Airspace Link, which provides air traffic control for drones in other cities, about how they work to ensure drones from law enforcement, businesses, and manned aircraft don't cross paths.

"There is a process called UTM, Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management, something the FAA uses to do strategic deconfliction. Walmart, or Wing, will create an area of operation where they’re going to fly, like an airspace reservation," explained Healander.

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"Then, say if a police department decides, 'We need to fly a drone,' they can see if they’re overlapping or not," he said. "If flight plans do overlap, they have to deconflict it. They have to decide if they’re going to fly or not."

Timeline:

Walmart's expansion comes as Amazon Prime Air has also been using drones to deliver packages in College Station and says it's looking to move the service into other cities.

Once Walmart's drone delivery launches in the added cities, customers will be able to enter their address on Wing.com/Walmart to see if they're in an area where drones deliver.  

Demmitt says drone delivery will be free initially. Walmart's website says it's free for Walmart+ members, and $20 for non-members.

Dates for the rollout haven't been announced, but Demmitt says it will be in the coming weeks and months.