Changelog Interviews Autonomous drone delivery in a Zip
Dec 10, 2025
Keenan Wyrobek, cofounder and CTO of Zipline, discusses revolutionary drone logistics that started with delivering medical supplies in Rwanda. He shares insights on overcoming technical challenges and regulatory hurdles while expanding delivery services to e-commerce and agriculture. Keenan elaborates on their innovative double-drone design, cloud-based orchestration, and the future of airspace management. He also highlights the societal impacts of drone delivery, sparking creative uses like gifting and route-worker lunches.
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Start Small, Solve High-Value Problems
- Zipline began by solving a high-value, time-sensitive health logistics problem: delivering blood in Rwanda.
- Focusing on a critical niche proved the concept and built partnerships that enabled broader scale.
Drone Inside A Drone Design
- Zipline's precision design uses a large carrier and a small "delivery zip" that lowers packages quietly and precisely.
- The dual-drone approach preserves quiet operation while enabling tight-space home deliveries.
Testing Is Half The Engineering
- Developing flight controls required massive testing and simulation infrastructure.
- Keenan says roughly half of Zipline's engineering effort is devoted to testing and validation.