Consumers got a glimpse of the future this week when an unmanned delivery drone jointly developed by Yamato Holdings Co. and Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of the U.S. made its first successful flight.
Autonomous Pod Transport 70 was tested at Bell's proving ground in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday. The two companies hope to put the drone into service in Japan by the early 2020s, before taking it global.
The development of delivery drones comes amid rapid growth in parcel deliveries driven by the boom in online shopping. Deliveries in Japan hit 4.25 billion in fiscal 2017, up 5.8 percent on the previous year, transport ministry data shows.