Canadian company to service remote Canada using self-flying plane in one-year deal with feds
CTV
A Canadian startup has received a yearlong contract with the federal government to deliver cargo to remote areas of Canada using a self-flying airplane.
A Canadian startup has received a yearlong contract with the federal government to deliver cargo to remote areas of Canada using a self-flying airplane.
Ribbit, an autonomous plane service company founded in 2020, and the federal government have agreed to a one-year, $1.3-million contract to test the airline's self-flying technology.
Jeremy Wang, chief operating officer of Ribbit and a graduate of the University of Waterloo, says the airline uses a conventional fixed-wing airplane retrofitted with software and hardware so it can fly fully autonomously.
"You can sort of think of it like a really advanced autopilot, so from gate-to-gate the airplane will do everything by itself," he told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday.
This includes taxi, takeoff and landing, Wang said. His co-founder, Carl Pigeon, told CTV News Kitchener in May that the company had been approved to fly without a pilot on board at a test range in Alberta.
The goal, Wang says, is to make transportation more accessible and reliable for everyone.
"So with small, autonomous planes flying frequently and doing so in a really cost-effective manner, we hope to make a difference for these communities for things like food, medicine and other time-sensitive supplies," he said.
