Autonomous drone deliveries in Central Texas

Forget the front porch. This delivery comes from the sky. Round Rock resident Ashley Sanchez noticed drones popping up around her neighborhood. With her kids curious about the site, they decided to give the service a try. I think that a part of it is the novelty. You know, it's exciting to see something new. And when your kids are out here watching other people get these things, you're like, oh, well, I want to give them that same experience. And then it's just to show them something fun, something innovative. Using the Zipline app, customers can order from participating restaurants and stores. The drone autonomously receives the order, then flies it to your location. When the drone arrives, it stays more than 300 feet in the air, while a pod containing the order descends to the ground on a tether right to your lawn. Sanchez's first order, Schlotzsky's cinnamon rolls. I just tried to open the app and there it all was. There was a bunch of food options, so I was like, oh my gosh, kids. And we actually had a couple of kids over and I was like, everyone's going to get to see the drone, you know, come to the house and deliver the food. And the kids were thrilled to see this food come down from the sky. The company first got its start delivering blood to hospitals in Rwanda. To date, Zipline says it's made over three million deliveries of blood, agriculture supplies, medical supplies, food and retail items. Zipline says the service can also help customers avoid extra trips and time spent in traffic. And Zipline helps save people time from running errands. It's been super popular with busy parents, older folks, people who don't drive or have access to vehicles. But as drone deliveries expand, so do questions about how they'll affect the neighborhoods below. Zipline says its systems are designed to minimize noise and the electric flights mean zero emissions. For now, all eyes are on the sky in Round Rock. We conducted one of the largest aviation testing programs ever flying hundreds of thousands of flights. So the community can rest assured that this is a very safe system, and we put a lot of effort into maintaining that.