Walmart is ending DroneUp deliveries in three states

Walmart is ending drone deliveries made with spouse DroneUp successful Phoenix, AZ, Salt Lake City, UT, and Tampa, FL, due to the fact that the services successful those cities weren’t sustainable, according to Axios. This is aft Walmart and DroneUp announced in 2022 that they would beryllium bringing drone transportation to those states arsenic portion of a broader expansion.

Right now, it costs astir $30 to usage a drone to present a package, but DroneUp wants to bring the outgo down truthful that it’s little than $7, DroneUp CEO Tom Walker told Axios.

DroneUp volition beryllium closing 18 Walmart transportation hubs successful the cities, and 17 percent of DroneUp’s workforce (70 staffers) volition suffer their jobs, Axios reports. Following the cuts, determination volition lone beryllium 15 Walmart locations — “11 successful Dallas, 3 adjacent Walmart’s Bentonville, Ark., office and 1 successful Virginia Beach,” according to Axios — wherever you tin instrumentality vantage of DroneUp’s transportation program.

Walmart and DroneUp didn’t instantly reply to a petition for comment.

In summation to DroneUp, Walmart partners with Alphabet’s Wing and Zipline connected drone deliveries to the Dallas-Fort Worth metro country and with Flytrex connected deliveries successful Fayetteville, North Carolina.