Walmart expands drone deliveries to 1.8 million more Texas homes

Walmart initially piloted drone delivery in 2021 but has embarked on its biggest expansion of the innovative offering yet across Texas with its two key partners.

Shubham Sawarkar

ByShubham Sawarkar

Editor-in-Chief

Shubham Sawarkar is a technology journalist at GadgetBond, covering Apple, AI, consumer technology, software, gadgets, and product launches. His work explores emerging technologies, industry developments, product...

Follow:

- Editor-in-Chief

Jan 10, 2024, 9:19 AM EST

Walmart has launched a major expansion of its drone delivery service in Texas, the company announced Tuesday. The retail giant can now drop off packages via aerial drone to 1.8 million additional households in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.

With the rollout, Walmart’s drones can now reach 75% of residents in the North Texas region. Customers living within 10 miles of a participating Walmart store can order items like over-the-counter medication, party supplies and groceries, and have them delivered to their doorstep within 30 minutes. Some drone deliveries take as little as 10 minutes from order to drop-off.

Walmart first piloted drone delivery in partnership with tech startup Wing and Zipline in its home state of Arkansas in 2021. Last year, it took the service airborne in other parts of the country. The expansion in Texas represents Walmart’s biggest drone delivery push yet, adding service to 30 additional towns and communities in the vicinity of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Both Wing, which is owned by Google parent company Alphabet, and logistics drone builder Zipline will facilitate the new expansion. By teaming up with two partners, Walmart aims to provide more comprehensive, efficient service across the region.

“Zipline is excited to enable Walmart’s vision of providing customer delivery so fast it feels like teleportation,” said Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo in a statement. “We’re excited for folks across Dallas-Fort Worth to experience delivery that is 7x as fast, zero emissions and whisper quiet.”

The drones can only carry smaller, lighter items like over-the-counter medicine, birthday candles and eggs due to weight limitations. However, Walmart notes that delivering products quickly via drone can still be invaluable for customers in a pinch.

So far, Walmart has tallied more than 20,000 completed drone deliveries nationwide. Wing plans to initiate service to new North Texas areas over the coming months, with an expectation that the full expansion in partnership with Walmart will be complete within the year.

Interested customers can check the Wing and Zipline websites to see if their address is eligible for Walmart’s drone delivery service.