Delivery drones tested in Massachusetts in an effort to reduce traffic
Boston traffic is as unavoidable as death and taxes, yet the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is taking a new approach to remove cars from the road by putting packages in the air. They are revolutionizing drone delivery in the Bay State.
Dan O'Toole is the CEO of Arrive AI. The Indiana company partnered with MassDOT on a case study. They were able to successfully deliver medical supplies by drone to locations in Lynn.
"Everyone gets multiple deliveries from different deals every single day. So somebody to coordinate all that, that's what you need, that's where we are," said O'Toole, talking about their role in the study. "For every 1% of deliveries that are made to an arrive point, that takes 3,000 trucks off the road here in the U.S."
MassDOT said the medical delivery demonstrations took place between August and October of 2024. The tests were designed to explore and assess the future use of drones for home-based healthcare and emergency medical response in the future.
How the deliveries would work
Arrive AI is like the air traffic controller. They don't create the drones or robots, but they do facilitate how they get there.
A drone or robot will bring the package to your doorstep and drop it into their high-tech box or access point. Once it's in there, the box will lock and send a notification to the recipient and the sender.
"Every day there is 1.7 million packages stolen in the U.S. What if you could disrupt that by safeguarding these items," added O'Toole.
This type of out-of-the-box thinking isn't new for the city. Additional bike lanes are popping up, and moped drivers whizz by with food deliveries. This is the latest step to help ease congestion by getting delivery cars off of the road.
"We are kind of there already, it's just acceptance, getting all the rules and regulations in place, the flight paths all those things," explained O'Toole.
Packages 10 pounds or less
Right now, their case study with MassDOT is for handling last-mile deliveries of 10 pounds or less.
"Drone delivery specifically or robotic delivery really can transcend every use case because 91% of all deliveries are five pounds or less," said O'Toole.
The boxes would work as a subscription service. O'Toole says over time, if usage expands, the cost could be free.
MassDOT says it currently uses drones for infrastructure inspection and incident response.
