Google laboratory aims to build package delivery drones

Google’s secretive research laboratory is trying to build a fleet of drones designed to by-pass earthbound traffic to deliver packages to people more quickly.

The ambitious programme, called Project Wing, ups the ante in Google’s technological arms race with rival Amazon, which also is experimenting with self-flying vehicles to carry merchandise bought by customers of its online store.

Amazon is mounting its own challenges to Google in online video, digital advertising and mobile computing in a battle that also involves Apple.

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Although Google expects it to take several more years before its fleet of drones is fully operational, the company says test flights in Australia two weeks ago delivered a first aid kit, sweets, dog treats and water to two farmers after travelling just over half a mile.

Google’s video of the test flight, set to the strains of the 1969 song Spirit In The Sky, can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRTNvWcx9Oo.

Besides perfecting the aerial technology, Google and Amazon still need to gain government approval to fly commercial drones in many countries, including the US.Last month Amazon asked the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to expand its drone testing.

The FAA currently allows hobbyists and model aircraft makers to fly drones, but commercial use is mostly banned. Project Wing is the latest venture to emerge from Google’s X’ lab, which has also been working on self-driving cars as well as other far-flung 
innovations that chief executive Larry Page likens to “moonshots” that push the technological envelope.

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The lab’s other handiwork includes internet-connected eyewear called Google Glass, internet-beaming balloons called Project Loon and a high-tech contact lens that monitors glucose levels in diabetics.

Google says it is striving to improve society through the X’s lab’s research, but the Glass device has faced criticism from privacy watchdogs wary of the product’s ability to secretly record video and take pictures.