The future of drone delivery is here, “it’s just not evenly distributed,” to borrow the words of William Gibson. Within the next five-plus years, Amazon aims to deliver a half of a billion packages per year by drone. Today, Zipline has already reached a million drone deliveries thanks to its global presence and Google’s Wing subsidiary has hit 350k. Last month, the US House of Representatives passed the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 that reduces the amount of bureaucracy required for drone startups to launch new delivery markets. Meanwhile, a battleground is currently forming in Dallas, TX as major drone players like Zipline, DroneUp, Wing, and Flytrex form partnerships with big box retailers like Walmart and franchisees of brands like Domino’s, Jersey Mike’s, and Whataburger. This hub has become ground zero for drone deliveries thanks to its high-income suburban sprawl that also boasts clear skies. So where are we in the current evolution of this technology, what’s its promise, and what will it look like in the future? Over the past few months HNGRY and OttoMate teamed up on a project to investigate further and below is a summary of what we learned.