KEMAH, Texas (KTRK) — Kemah officials said it could allow a business to be the first in the Houston area to use delivery drones.
Right now, Walmart uses delivery drones in some parts of Texas, including Dallas. Houston could soon get its first site at the Kemah location.
“Sometimes when you come into a Walmart, there are hundreds and hundreds of people throughout the aisles,” David Beers said. “Sometimes you don’t want to be in that crowd.”
“I think it’s cool technology that they have drones, but not with packages,” Ashley Fuller said.
Kemah’s city administrator, Cesar Garcia, said the business is still going through the permitting process. A discussion on the plans took place at a recent council meeting.
Once complete, officials say the store plans to set up an outdoor loading area where drones would take off with packages weighing no more than about two pounds, delivering them within six miles of the store.
“It depends on what time of day or night,” Rupert Banks said. “If it’s at night, it doesn’t really have business flying over my property.”
City leaders say the drones will operate during daylight and not in bad weather. There are about 20 of them.
They’ll fly a minimum of 150 feet above ground and travel at 65 miles per hour. City leaders said the company behind them, Wing, will have an operator off-site, watching the routes.
The plan is to fly in the right-of-way. However, they admit there will be times when they fly over people’s property. They say if the drone loses battery, it will fall.
Garcia said he’s not aware of any accidents or incidents involving the delivery drones at the other locations in Texas. If something happens and causes injury or damage, city officials say the devices are insured.
Technology officials say you could see delivering packages as soon as next month.
“It’s going to be weird,” Fuller said. “Why do we have to go to that extent?”
“To get an item flown to your house within 30 minutes to an hour would be about the same time it would take you to get to the store,” Beers explained.
Garcia said Walmart is eyeing other Houston-area locations for delivery drones, but isn’t sure where.
ABC13 reached out to Wing to ask about this and other safety issues, but did not hear back.
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