Drone Deliveries Finally Cleared for Take-Off In the USApr24

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Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Drones

Google Spinoff’s Drone Delivery Business First to Get FAA Approval

An offshoot of Alphabet Inc.’s Google has become the first drone operator to receive government approval as an airline, an important step that gives it the legal authority to begin dropping products to actual customers.

The subsidiary, Wing Aviation LLC, now has the same certifications that smaller airlines receive from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation. It plans to begin routine deliveries of small consumer items in two rural communities in Virginia within months, the company said. “It’s an exciting moment for us to have earned the FAA’s approval to actually run a business with our technology,” Wing Chief Executive Officer James Ryan Burgess said in an interview. He called it “pivotal” both for his company and the drone industry in general.

Drone regulations still don’t permit most flights over crowds and urban areas, limiting where Wing can operate. But the approvals signed by the FAA on Friday and Monday give the company the ability to charge for deliveries of clients’ goods in Virginia and apply for permission to expand to other regions.

While scores of companies working in test programs have gotten FAA waivers to perform demonstration flights or to make deliveries over short distances, there has never been a drone company approved under the regulations designed to ensure safety at traditional charter airlines or smaller air-cargo haulers.

Read the full article from Bloomberg +

Drones

Wing Officially Launches Australian Drone Delivery Service

Alphabet’s subsidiary Wing announced this week that it has officially launched a commercial drone delivery service “to a limited set of eligible homes in the suburbs of Crace, Palmerston and Franklin,” which are just north of Canberra, in Australia. Wing’s drones are able to drop a variety of small products, including coffee, food, and pharmacy items, shuttling them from local stores to customers’ backyards within minutes.

Read the full article from IEEE Spectrum +

Drones

Your Drone-Delivered Coffee Is (Almost) Here

On a not-so-blustery day in Reykjavik, a drone rises above a treeless Icelandic landscape. It’s carrying a package, likely someone’s dinner. Once rare and exotic, sorties like this have become routine in just two years’ time.

These deliveries are made by Icelandic subsidiary Aha, the equivalent of DoorDash or Postmates in the U.S. Its drones can carry food and small consumer goods in a 2.5-mile radius, soon to expand to 5 miles with the introduction of more powerful drones from China’s DJI. Aha’s drone-delivery service is one of only a handful in the world. Another isAlphabet Inc.’s subsidiary Wing, whose most recent trial delivered coffee and other necessities like sunscreen and chocolate to 160 households in Canberra, Australia.

Drones might never make it in the big city: too many concrete canyons, errant pedestrians and unpredictable truck drivers, not to mention too few backyards to serve as drop points. That’s why drone developers have their sights on the suburbs, where other forms of delivery are still generally unprofitable.

This week, UPS claimed it is breaking new ground for drone delivery in the U.S. as it starts to charge for a service to transport medical supplies. Meanwhile, Wing already performed the first U.S. autonomous delivery, in Blacksburg, Va., and Flytrex, the company providing Aha’s drone guidance and delivery technology, is gearing up for a trial in Holly Springs, N.C.

Read the full article from The Wall Street Journal +

Drones

Amazon is on a hiring spree for “Prime Air” as it looks to finally launch drone delivery for all

In October, Amazon listed just 5 “Prime Air” openings. Today, there are 61 such jobs. The most common title is for Research Scientists and Software Development Engineers. Some of the more interesting titles, however, include a Prime Air Flight Operations Training Specialist, Prime Air Senior Flight Test Engineer, and an Aerodynamics Engineer.

Meanwhile, hiring for positions with the word “Delivery” in their titles has jumped, particularly as of late. In the summer of 2018, “Delivery” openings at Amazon went from 96 to 209 in just a matter of weeks. As of this week, the number of similar openings sits at a healthy 238.

Read the full article from Thinknum +

LONG

ASEAN Markets

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Lithium

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Obesity

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Solar

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Value Over Growth

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3D Printing

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Autos

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Gold & Gold Miners

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Long-Dated U.S. Treasuries

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Oil & U.S. Energy

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U.S. Housing

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Video Gaming

US House Prices Rise 0.3% in February: FHFA

The average prices of single-family houses with mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the United States rose 0.3 percent from a month earlier in February 2019, easing from a 0.6 percent increase in January and matching market expectations. Year-on-year, house prices were up 4.9 percent, slower than 5.6 percent in the previous month.

Click here to access the data +

US New Home Sales Jump to Near 1-1/2-Year High

Sales of new single-family houses in the United States rose 4.5 percent from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692 thousand in March 2019, the highest level since November 2017, while markets had forecast a 2.5 percent fall to 650 thousand.

Click here to access the data +

US Fifth District Manufacturing Activity Below Forecasts

The Manufacturing Activity Index in the US fifth district fell to 3 in April of 2019 from 10 in the previous month and well below market expectations of 10. Firms were optimistic, expecting conditions to improve in the next six months.

Click here to access the data +

Dollar at Near 2-Year High

The dollar index hit a 22-month high of 97.712 on Tuesday after data showed new home sales in the US, which account for about 11.7 percent of housing market sales, increased for the third straight month in March to their highest level since November 2017, while markets had forecast a 2.5 percent fall.

Click here to access the data +

British Pound Hits 9-week Low

GBPUSD decreased to a 9-week low of 1.2925.

Click here to access the data +

Gold Prices Fall to 4-Month Low

Gold prices dropped to $1270 an ounce on Tuesday, the lowest reading since December 26th, on the back of a stronger dollar while investor’s appetite for riskier assets also weighed on prices. Gold prices have been under pressure after better-than-expected data from both US and China eased worries about the global economy.

Click here to access the data +

Finance

Blockchain

Financial institutions’ investments in crypto firms are on pace for a record year

Major financial institutions (FIs) and tech firms are investing heavily in startups building technology to develop the crypto market, despite steering clear of investing in the nascent asset class themselves, reports Reuters.

So far this year, crypto and blockchain startups have secured $850 million across 13 deals in VC funding, including funds from corporates, per PitchBook data. That figure puts funding for the segment on track for a second consecutive annual record following the fivefold year-over-year spike in investments in 2018, where $2.4 billion was raised across 117 deals. Expect FIs to keep pouring investments into the tech, not least because it offers them an opportunity to have skin in the game, while freeing them from commitment.

Investing in startups enables FIs to bridge the enduring tension over blockchain’s potential.Despite heavy investments in blockchain, FIs have struggled to move these projects from testing to large-scale rollouts. The result has been increasing sentiment that little has been delivered from the large investments.

At the same time, the promise of the technology, coupled with the constant pressure on FIs to keep up with developments shaping the future of the industry, makes walking away from blockchain particularly challenging.

Read the full article from Business Insider +

China Banks

China’s Banks Are Running Out of Dollars

China’s major commercial banks have a funding issue outside Beijing’s control: They’re running low on the U.S. dollars they need for activities both at home and abroad.

The combined dollar liabilities at the big four commercial banks exceeded their dollar assets at the end of 2018, their annual results show—a sharp reversal from just a few years ago. Back in 2013, the four together had around $125 billion more dollar assets than liabilities, but now they owe more dollars to creditors and customers than are owed to them.

Bank of China BACHY -0.33% is by far the greatest contributor to the shift. Once the holder of more net assets in dollars than any other Chinese lender, it ended 2018 owing about $70 billion more in dollar liabilities than it booked in dollar assets. The other three lenders actually finished the year with more dollar assets than liabilities, though Industrial & Commercial Bank of China IDCBY -0.23% had a deficit at the end of 2017.

In its annual report, Bank of China says that its asset-liability imbalance is more than addressed by dollar funding that doesn’t sit on its balance sheet. Instruments like currency swaps and forwards are accounted for elsewhere.

Read the full article from The Wall Street Journal +

Services

Cannabis

Acreage Will Use Canopy’s Clout to Do More Deals, CEO Says

Acreage Holdings Inc. plans to use its pending acquisition by Canopy Growth Corp. to bulk up in the U.S. even before the deal closes, using the clout and spending power it’s gained to dominate an accelerating cannabis land grab.

“Since announcing this deal, we’ve had a number of folks come to us and say, ‘We had contemplated a sale of our business, we had entertained a number of partners, and we would now like to redirect our efforts towards you and align with you guys,’” Acreage Chief Executive Officer Kevin Murphy said in a phone interview Monday.

Canopy’s $3.4 billion acquisition of Acreage, announced Thursday, is contingent on cannabis becoming legal at the federal level in the U.S. While New York-based Acreage will receive $300 million in cash up front, most of the purchase price will be paid in Canopy shares if and when U.S. laws change. Canopy, the world’s largest pot company by market value, has gained about 75 percent this year and its stock is significantly more liquid than Acreage’s.

In the meantime, Acreage can issue up to 58 million subordinate voting shares at an implied valuation of $1.4 billion based on the deal’s exchange ratio of 0.5818 of a Canopy share for each Acreage share, Murphy said. The company can use that stock to “go out and acquire other companies in the U.S. and they in turn know that they will receive their share of Canopy when we can complete our merger,” he said.

Read the full article from Bloomberg +

Plant-Based

Inside Beyond Meat’s $184M IPO plans

Beyond Meat aims to raise $183.8 million in its initial public offering, according to an amended S-1 filing submitted Monday to the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s a significant increase from the $100 million the company anticipated last fall when first announcing plans for the IPO.

The California-based maker of plant-based meat alternatives told the SEC the initial price for its common stock is expected to be between $19 and $21 per share for a market value of up to $1.21 billion. The company also noted in the filing that it has a history of net losses, stating, “[W]e may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability.” In 2018, Beyond Meat posted net revenue of $87.9 million, with a net loss last year of $29.9 million. However, the company anticipates accelerating demand for its products both in the U.S. and internationally.

Beyond Meat said it plans to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market with the ticker symbol BYND. CNN reported the company will start trading in early May. Lead underwriters are Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse, and co-managers are BofA Merrill Lynch, Jefferies and William Blair.

Read the full article from Food Dive +

Coffee

China’s Starbucks Challenger Files for U.S. IPO

Luckin Coffee Inc., the ambitious startup that is challenging Starbucks Corp.in the race to dominate China’s growing coffee culture, filed for a U.S. initial public offering.

The Beijing-based company applied to list American depositary shares on Nasdaq under the ticker LK. The coffee unicorn is said to plan to raise around $300 million in the IPO, Bloomberg News reported in February. Last week, Luckin raised $150 million from BlackRock and other investors at a valuation of $2.9 billion.

Luckin is spending millions of dollars a year opening outlets to unseat Starbucks as China’s top coffee company. Since its inception in June 2017, Luckin has quickly expanded into 2,370 stores in 28 cities, with backing from investors including Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and China International Capital Corp. By the end of this year, Luckin aims to become the largest coffee network in China in terms of number of stores.

It faces an uphill battle against Starbucks, which entered China 20 years ago and dominates with more than 50 percent of the market last year, according to Euromonitor. Luckin held only a 2.1 percent share in 2018. Starbucks has more than 3,700 outlets in the country and is also expanding at break-neck speed, opening a new store roughly every 15 hours. It’s aiming to have 6,000 sites in China by 2023.

Read the full article from Bloomberg +

Technology

Quantum

Tiny component may be able to reach ‘quantum supremacy’

Researchers have developed a nanocomponent that emits light particles carrying quantum information. Less than one-tenth the width of a human hair, the miniscule component makes it possible to scale up and could ultimately reach the capabilities required for a quantum computer or quantum internet.

The authors of the new study and their colleagues have focused on developing quantum communication technology based on light circuits, known as nanophotonic circuits. Now, they’ve achieved a major advancement. “It is a truly major result, despite the component being so tiny,” says Leonardo Midolo, an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen who has been working towards this breakthrough for the past five years.

The research team has invented a component, called a nanomechanical router, that emits quantum information carried by light particles (photons) and routes them into different directions inside a photonic chip. Photonic chips are like computer microchips—only, they use light instead of electrons.

“Bringing the worlds of nanomechanics and quantum photonics together is a way to scale up quantum technology. In quantum physics, it has been a challenge to scale systems. Until now, we have been able to send off individual photons. However, to do more advanced things with quantum physics, we will need to scale systems up, which is what this invention allows for.

Read the full article from Futurity +

Transportation

Drones

Google Spinoff’s Drone Delivery Business First to Get FAA Approval

An offshoot of Alphabet Inc.’s Google has become the first drone operator to receive government approval as an airline, an important step that gives it the legal authority to begin dropping products to actual customers.

The subsidiary, Wing Aviation LLC, now has the same certifications that smaller airlines receive from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation. It plans to begin routine deliveries of small consumer items in two rural communities in Virginia within months, the company said. “It’s an exciting moment for us to have earned the FAA’s approval to actually run a business with our technology,” Wing Chief Executive Officer James Ryan Burgess said in an interview. He called it “pivotal” both for his company and the drone industry in general.

Drone regulations still don’t permit most flights over crowds and urban areas, limiting where Wing can operate. But the approvals signed by the FAA on Friday and Monday give the company the ability to charge for deliveries of clients’ goods in Virginia and apply for permission to expand to other regions.

While scores of companies working in test programs have gotten FAA waivers to perform demonstration flights or to make deliveries over short distances, there has never been a drone company approved under the regulations designed to ensure safety at traditional charter airlines or smaller air-cargo haulers.

Read the full article from Bloomberg +

Drones

Wing Officially Launches Australian Drone Delivery Service

Alphabet’s subsidiary Wing announced this week that it has officially launched a commercial drone delivery service “to a limited set of eligible homes in the suburbs of Crace, Palmerston and Franklin,” which are just north of Canberra, in Australia. Wing’s drones are able to drop a variety of small products, including coffee, food, and pharmacy items, shuttling them from local stores to customers’ backyards within minutes.

Read the full article from IEEE Spectrum +

Drones

Your Drone-Delivered Coffee Is (Almost) Here

On a not-so-blustery day in Reykjavik, a drone rises above a treeless Icelandic landscape. It’s carrying a package, likely someone’s dinner. Once rare and exotic, sorties like this have become routine in just two years’ time.

These deliveries are made by Icelandic subsidiary Aha, the equivalent of DoorDash or Postmates in the U.S. Its drones can carry food and small consumer goods in a 2.5-mile radius, soon to expand to 5 miles with the introduction of more powerful drones from China’s DJI. Aha’s drone-delivery service is one of only a handful in the world. Another isAlphabet Inc.’s subsidiary Wing, whose most recent trial delivered coffee and other necessities like sunscreen and chocolate to 160 households in Canberra, Australia.

Drones might never make it in the big city: too many concrete canyons, errant pedestrians and unpredictable truck drivers, not to mention too few backyards to serve as drop points. That’s why drone developers have their sights on the suburbs, where other forms of delivery are still generally unprofitable.

This week, UPS claimed it is breaking new ground for drone delivery in the U.S. as it starts to charge for a service to transport medical supplies. Meanwhile, Wing already performed the first U.S. autonomous delivery, in Blacksburg, Va., and Flytrex, the company providing Aha’s drone guidance and delivery technology, is gearing up for a trial in Holly Springs, N.C.

Read the full article from The Wall Street Journal +

Drones

Amazon is on a hiring spree for “Prime Air” as it looks to finally launch drone delivery for all

In October, Amazon listed just 5 “Prime Air” openings. Today, there are 61 such jobs. The most common title is for Research Scientists and Software Development Engineers. Some of the more interesting titles, however, include a Prime Air Flight Operations Training Specialist, Prime Air Senior Flight Test Engineer, and an Aerodynamics Engineer.

Meanwhile, hiring for positions with the word “Delivery” in their titles has jumped, particularly as of late. In the summer of 2018, “Delivery” openings at Amazon went from 96 to 209 in just a matter of weeks. As of this week, the number of similar openings sits at a healthy 238.

Read the full article from Thinknum +