Alibaba Testing Drones?

Like other major tech-giants who have tried their hands in drones, it seems Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA is also upping the ante by ‘experimenting’ with drone deliveries in 3 cities in China. CNBC’s Eunice Yoon reported on this recently.

“When it comes to drone deliveries, Alibaba is jumping in the fray and stepping up the competition, Yoon said. “Already the Chinese e-commerce giant has partnered with a local courier service, in order to really come up with this experimental testing program to test drones to deliver small packages.”

She continued, “So, like I said, they are starting small, this is an experimentation and they are starting with a 3-day trial in 3 major cities including here in Beijing, they are going to start with light-weight ginger tea boxes, these are going to 450 customers and the deliveries are supposed to take place within an hour. Now, so far there’s been I would say a healthy dose of scepticism about the program by the public.”

Regulatory Concerns

“Most people have been talking about how Amazon itself have had some regulatory issues in the United States because of the concerns over safety flying these drones and the deliveries and in China the regulations are also very, very tight,” Yoon said.

“ In fact, the first flight for one of these drone deliveries failed here in Beijing because of the restrictions of flying drones within the city and in fact the Chinese government is very sensitive about flying any objects in fact during major government conferences even kite flying is banned. So, a lot of people are wondering where this is all going to go and in fact Alibaba itself has said that they recognise that drone deliveries are not yet ready for commercialization.”