Google has unveiled that it’s been testing a new drone for delivery of small packages to remote places. While the initial flights were conducted on a rancher’s land outside of Brisbane in Australia, and involved delivering a tasty snack to a hungry dog, we’re hoping the technology will find use in shipping drugs to those urgently needing them. The drone has four propellers and is in a shape of a little plane, but it takes off vertically and delivers its cargo by string while hovering with the nose pointing up at the sky.
These days, considering entire regions of Africa are under an Ebola quarantine, delivering medication remotely is looking like a great idea. Drivers don’t have to take risks entering potentially dangerous area while the chances of spreading the disease further are reduced. We’d also like to see the drone being able to pick up blood and stool samples, sending them to a lab for analysis and coming back with appropriate medication to treat the newly diagnosed disease. Here’s a video Google released showing off the new drone doing its thing:
(hat tip: The Sydney Morning Herald)
