Google Is Also Testing Same-Day Delivery Drones

Amazon is far from the only company building drones for same-day delivery services.

Google has been toying with the idea since late last year, too, as part of its secret Google X lab that works out on all of Google's far-out projects, Seth Weintraub of the 9to5 Google blog reported back in February.

Google hopes to one day use drones and self-driving cars to deliver purchases made through its new experimental services, sources told Weintraub.

For instance, in March, Google launched a same-day delivery service in the Bay Area. Users can shop at a variety of retailers including Target, Walgreens, Staples, American Eagle, Toys"R"Us, or Nob Hill grocery stores, and Google will deliver the items. Google envisions one day making those deliveries via drones and self driving cars.

As we previously written, UPS is looking into drone delivery vehicles too.

All of this is years away. The technology has to mature enough to be safe so that all these drones flying around the sky don't crash into each other, get tangled in telephone poles, interfere with air travel, or otherwise cause trouble. In fact, automated drone delivery is currently outlawed by the FAA.

Still, as we reported in November, workplace experts predict that consumer drones will become an everyday tool for a lot of businesses, not just for same-day delivery but for other tasks, like running around warehouses.