The “Battle Beneath the Skies” Isn’t Up in the Air at All
The “Battle Beneath the Skies” Isn’t Up in the Air at All
Opinion piece by Arrive's Cheryl Reed
In July, OttOmate published “Battle Beneath The Skies: Who Invented Drone Landing Stations?” examining the competition between Valqari and Arrive, two startups developing landing stations for drone deliveries. Cheryl Reed, Communications Director at Arrive, has responded with the following opinion piece:
When Dan O’Toole started his company, Arrive Technology, Inc. (formerly Dronedek), he knew that he was in the race of his life. He had been in this position before. General Motors had edged him out for a patent on a revolutionary medical device. Sony later beat him by less than a month to secure a patent for a new concept for a remote-control device.
When inspiration for a smart mailbox struck, he was determined not to lose again. He raced to the patent office, design in hand. It was 2014, and O’Toole was hearing the immortal words of Ricky Bobby in his head the whole trip: “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”
This time, O’Toole was first.
“We beat Amazon by four days, we beat the U.S. Postal Service by two weeks and others by less than a month to secure our foundational patent,” he said. “You don’t poke the bear – the bear in this case being Amazon or USPS – unless you have a solid backup for what you are saying. And we do. Arrive holds a first position patent portfolio for a platform business in developing Mailbox as a Service, or MaaS.”
As autonomous delivery of all kinds is set to roll out, the competition for security in the delivery space is heating up, and that’s causing some to question who is at the front of the pack. Arrive is not only first, but it’s also solved the pain point of how to make every type of delivery more secure. And not only that: its tracking system will increase accuracy, saving money and time by getting goods delivered to the right consumer the first time.
“The trillion-dollar market cap companies are playing in our sandbox,” O’Toole says. “Drones and robots are set to roll out, but they are really the commodity segment of the last mile. The monopoly aspect is the little piece of real estate where every delivery will start or end.”
Arrive will be the gateway to every home and business and is at the center of the delivery universe, he predicted.
“There can never be wholesale autonomous delivery at scale without a safe, secure mailbox or delivery point in the last-mile ecosystem,” says O’Toole. “If you believe that autonomous delivery is going to happen, and you know who has the first position on design of the device that will accept those deliveries, then you must also believe that Arrive will lead the way.”
Arrive’s design is for the masses. The Arrive team is constantly iterating and now has several configurations for the smart mailbox that have the promise of reshaping everything we know and expect in the way consumers get their stuff. Whether that’s lunch or medicine or tissue samples and bloodwork or the latest pair of sneakers.
Consumers of all sizes want better, faster, fresher, cheaper, greener, safer delivery. Arrive delivers on each of these consumer demands.
Better: The Arrive experience is seamless, efficient and satisfying because the consumer can rest assured his or her delivery will be there when it’s convenient for them to get to it.
Faster: In the time it takes you to put on your shoes and get to your car, your items can be delivered autonomously.
Fresher: Because your items get there in real time, they will always be the freshest you can get.
Cheaper: Autonomous delivery streamlines costs and saves labor, saving on every delivery.
Greener: Eco-friendly delivery and reduced carbon emissions reduce costs and saves the planet.
Safer: Security is base standard for all items and deliveries. Without security, there will be no large-scale autonomous delivery, and with autonomous delivery, traffic crash risk is reduced.
Package delivery is a huge and growing economy whose future is tied directly to the technology that will power and determine the flow of commerce. Arrive got there first and plans to stay there.
