Missing out on Thin Mints in the pandemic? A Google affiliate is using drones to deliver Girl Scout cookies to doorsteps in a Virginia community, per the AP. The town of Christiansburg has been a testing ground for commercial delivery drones operated by Wing, a subsidiary of Google's corporate parent Alphabet. Now the company is adding the iconic boxed cookies to the more mundane drugstore offerings, FedEx packages, and locally made pastries, tacos, and cold-brew coffees it's been hauling to a thinly populated area of residential subdivisions since 2019. Wing said it began talking to local Girl Scout troops because they’ve been having a harder time selling cookies during the pandemic, when fewer people are out and about.
“I’m excited that I get to be a part of history," said 11-year-old Gracie Walker of Virginia Skyline Troop 224. “People are going to realize and be, like, ‘Hey, this is better for the environment and I can just walk outside in my pajamas and get cookies.'" Federal officials started rolling out new rules in mid-April that will allow operators to fly small drones over people and at night, potentially giving a boost to commercial use of the machines. Most drones will need to be equipped so they can be identified remotely by law enforcement officials. The 10-pound Wing drone that made the first deliveries in Christiansburg is already an artifact at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Whether it will go down in history as a revolutionary innovation or a utopian flop remains to be seen.
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