DHL Express and intelligent autonomous aerial vehicle (drone) company EHang have launched a regular drone delivery route to overcome last mile delivery issues in urban China. The new customized route, which has been exclusively created for a single DHL customer, covers a distance of approximately eight kilometers between the customer premises and the DHL service center in Liaobu, Dongguan, Guangdong Province. These regular packages were previously delivered by road, typical taking around 40 minutes, but the drones can do it in just eight minutes. The drones take off and land on intelligent parcel boxes, which were specially developed for autonomous loading and unloading operations. These platforms are integrated into the classic sorting, scanning, and storage automation processes of express delivery. “The new intelligent drone delivery solution overcomes the complex road conditions and traffic congestion common to urban areas,” states the official press release. “It reduces one-way delivery time from 40 minutes to only eight minutes […]