Alphabet’s Wing will kick off Helsinki drone deliveries in summer 2019

Alphabet X Labs graduate Wing announced late last year that it would soon begin piloting autonomous deliveries in Helsinki, Finland, and a blog post this morning outlined a detailed roadmap. Wing says in the coming weeks it will deploy a small fleet of drones in the city’s Vuosaari district, where they’ll ferry provisions from convenience stores to homes and “multi-family housing communities.”

Wing will launch with two retail partners — gourmet supermarket Herkku Food Market and restaurant Cafe Monami — to deliver items weighing 3.3 pounds or less up to a distance of 6.2 miles. The company says that in anticipation of the launch it has hosted several community events “so that local residents could ask questions about [the] service” and “provide thoughts on how Wing might fit into their lives.”