AirPaths
2018JD.com built drone delivery to reach China's countryside. The harder question was what the same technology could do in dense cities, where last-mile delivery is slowest and most expensive. AirPaths explored those urban use cases.
- Partner
- JD.com Logistics
- Role
- Innovation project lead (Individual contributor)
- Type
- Concept exploration
- Markets
- 🇨🇳 China
AirPaths. JD.com drone delivery, woven into the everyday fabric of the dense city.
Outcome in numbers
JD.com is a Chinese technology-driven e-commerce company and the country's largest retailer by revenue, serving over 600 million users. Its drone-delivery program was launched to reach rural areas. JD.com needed help exploring potential use cases for the emerging technology in urban epicenters: faster last-mile delivery, lower costs and wider access.
Creative exploration through trend research and imagination and ideation workshops, to push the boundaries of what is possible. Each concept was assessed through a staggered framework: desirability (customers' willingness to adopt), viability (cost reduction, technological readiness) and feasibility (urban safety constraints, traffic-control policy).
A range of future concepts for urban drone delivery, including above-building hubs, vertical "sky postcodes" for receiving packages, and neighborhood drop-off points for the last mile. Each was pressure-tested against desirability, viability and feasibility, mapping how JD.com could extend its rural drone program into the city: faster and cheaper, without adding to street-level traffic.
Above-building hubs. Rooftop terminals where drones land and residents collect.
Vertical sky postcodes. A wall-mounted receiver brings parcels straight to the balcony.