Silicon Valley gets its first drone delivery service

Silicon Valley is getting its first drone delivery service to airdrop food and commercial items to local homes, though only the bare essentials (chocolate and Prime-branded drinks) are available right now. California-based Matternet is launching a pilot program for its delivery service in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, California, over two years after receiving Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for its Model M2 drone.

The delivery platform uses a variant of the M2 drone — currently the only non-military drone certified by the FAA for deliveries in the US, according to Matternet — which is equipped with a tether drop system to lower packages down to customers’ homes. Matternet says the delivery process is fully automated, and that the drones can return to a central hub to swap their battery and collect a new package “in under 60 seconds.”

“It is so fast, it feels like magic,” Matternet CEO Andreas Raptopoulos said in a press release, touting the drone service as a means to lower congestion and emissions in cities by reducing dependency on cars. Matternet is planning to further expand by collaborating with “major logistics partners.”

Residents in Mountain View and Sunnyvale can sign up to participate in the pilot here. Deliveries are only available between 12-6PM on Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and it’s unclear when the limited item selection will be expanded, or when other regions can expect to receive the service.