Matternet launches the world’s longest urban drone delivery route connecting hospitals and laboratories in Zurich, Switzerland
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California –
Today, Matternet, the developer of the world’s leading drone delivery system, announced the start of test operations on a five-kilometer BVLOS (Beyond-Visual-Line-of-Sight) route over the city of Zurich, Switzerland. This route is the world’s longest drone delivery route via a major city. It is used to transport diagnostic samples between the hospitals, Triemli and Waid – both belong to the Stadtspital Zürich, a municipal central hospital owned by the city of Zurich.
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Matternet M2 above the city of Zurich (Photo: Business Wire)
“The launch of this new service for the Stadtspital Zürich is an important moment for Matternet, but also for the future of healthcare and logistics services,” said Andreas Raptopoulos, Founder and CEO of Matternet. “Using the longest metropolitan BVLOS route for the on-demand transport of biological samples for diagnostic testing is changing the way hospitals and hospital systems can optimize patient care. At the same time, it creates new efficiencies to improve the patient experience and ensure care meets the demands of the 21st century.Century pace.”
With Matternet’s UAVs, transportation between the two hospitals and their labs takes just seven minutes. This test illustrates the potential of drones for the rapid on-demand delivery of single, urgent shipments without clogging Zurich streets or CO2 to eject Matternet drones transport medical supplies with a secure end-to-end chain of custody and operate autonomously with remote monitoring by Matternet’s Mission Control Center in Zurich.
Currently, hospitals rely on ground transportation to get samples to labs. This usually means that large batches are sent by car or van, which can cause significant delays. This process also places a heavy burden on laboratory staff, as large numbers of tests arrive at once rather than evenly distributed throughout the day. Additionally, for urgent diagnostic tests for individual patients, hospitals also rely on vehicle-based courier services, which may be even slower and less efficient.
Matternet is actively working on drone delivery networks that can address urgent healthcare logistics needs and help transform on-demand e-commerce into a sustainable mode of transportation. In the US, the company recently received type certification and a certificate of manufacture for its M2 drone from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This makes Matternet the first company to receive FAA approval to build and fly its own commercial delivery drone in this country.
“Switzerland has established itself as one of the most advanced countries in the world in drone delivery,” added Raptopoulos. “This new track in Zurich – building on the foundation of five years of successful operation in Switzerland – will help us gain insights into the development of a city-wide medical network that will serve as a template for similar networks in Europe, the US and beyond can.”
About Matternet
Matternet is a preeminent developer of commercial drone delivery systems for urban and suburban environments. The company supplies the Matternet M2 drone and the Matternet software platform and operates its technology directly for customers or in partnership with logistics companies such as UPS. In 2017, Matternet became the first company in the world to receive approval for commercial BVLOS operations of drone logistics networks over cities in Switzerland. Matternet and UPS partnered in 2019 to introduce drone delivery services in the United States and together launched the first revenue-generating drone delivery operation in the United States. In 2022, Matternet M2 became the first drone delivery system to receive type certification from the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States. To date, Matternet technology has enabled over 20,000 commercial flights.
For more information about Matternet, visit https://mttr.net.
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Source: BusinessWire