--- title: "Residents Are Furious About Google’s Drone Delivery Service" description: "Google parent company Alphabet is preparing to launch what the Australian Broadcasting Corporation says is the first commercial drone delivery service." date: "2019-03-09" modified: "2019-03-09" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-launch-worlds-first-commercial-drone-delivery" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Drones" - "Google" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "alphabet" - "drones" - "Google" - "the digest" --- # Residents Are Furious About Google’s Drone Delivery Service ![Google parent company Alphabet is preparing to launch what the Australian Broadcasting Corporation says is the first commercial drone delivery service.]() *\Image: Project Wing\* ## Project Wing Google parent company Alphabet is gearing up to launch what the *Australian Broadcasting Corporation* [reports will be]() the world's first commercial drone delivery service, which will fall under its Project Wing arm. But Alphabet may be in for a fight before the delivery program takes flight in Australia by this coming June, according to the *ABC* — because local residents are furious about the idea of buzzing drones invading their community. ## The Sky is Falling Alphabet says its drones will be able to deliver coffee, food and medication — but residents of Canberra, where the program will take place, are worried about what it'll be like living among the drones. "Things fall out of the sky, it's quite hard to get drones to work properly, it's quite hard to deal with drones when they lose communications... we should be treating it that way and applying the precautionary principle and getting out ahead of the problem," said Roger Clarke, a professor at Australian National University. ## Robotics Technologies For its part, Alphabet recently [tested a quieter version]() of its delivery drone. "We're trying to be as transparent and as open as we can," Project Wing CEO James Burgess told the *Canberra Times*. But not all residents are convinced. "That is what is going to happen with some forms of these new robotics technologies unless corporations deal the public in, and get the downsides understood and prevented or mitigated, and they're not doing it," Clarke said. **READ MORE:** [Google's drone delivery trial could be under threat from group of angry Australian residents]() \[*Australian Broadcasting Corporation*\] **More on drones:** [The US Army Is Equipping Soldiers With Pocket-Sized Recon Drones]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()