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This UPS Truck Can Deploy an Autonomous Roof-Docked Delivery Drone

Delivery company UPS has successfully completed a test with a specially-designed electric truck whose roof slides open to reveal an autonomous octocopter drone. 

The driver loads a package into a cage beneath the drone, the drone grabs the package, then flies it over to its destination.

The drone is no replacement for the driver, but is meant to increase the driver’s efficiency on sprawling rural routes. For instance, imagine if the driver needs to hit three addresses that are miles apart in a triangular formation. The driver reaches point A to make the delivery by hand, and deploys the drone to deliver to point B. The driver then heads for point C, and the drone catches up with the truck on the way and docks itself. The driver has saved themself from having to drive two sides of that triangle.

The drone recharges itself in the dock, has a flying capacity of 30 minutes, can carry a 10-pound package, and tops out around 50 miles per hour. Both the drone and the truck were created by Workhorse, an Ohio-based company that develops both electric delivery trucks and drones.

It looks like in the near future, rural dwellers waiting for packages will be alerted not by the sound of an approaching truck–the thing will be silent, being electric–but by the noise made by whizzing rotors.