MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. The creation of a seamless drone delivery mechanism is expected to be the primary driver of Russia’s technological and economic development in the next five years, Aviation Project Director at GLONASS Sergey Kukarev told TASS.

"Creating a seamless delivery mechanism using unmanned vehicles across land, water, and air is the key driver for the next five years, specifically, the combination of precisely all these means. Currently, we see fragmented development. There are semi-trucks operating in autonomous <…> corridors, intra-city logistics, taxis, as well as various attempts to use unmanned aerial vehicles for delivery, monitoring, and more. It is precisely this integration that will serve as the primary driver for both technological and economic development," he said.

It is already starting to work in logistics, Kukarev noted. An autonomous semi-truck arrives at a distribution warehouse and unhitches its trailer, after which an autonomous cart takes over, he said, adding that many warehouses already have automated systems in place. "The next option involves a large warehouse: the same 200-300 kg load can be transported to a mid-sized pickup point via an unmanned aerial vehicle, and that is where it starts to work. In other words, the most valuable resource, people, is freed up," Kukarev said.