Kiki Air, a student-based start-up, is a drone-based
delivery system that drops off packages across Yale University. It delivers
four categories of goods at specific locations around the campus, including
residential colleges, commonly-frequented walkways and in old campus. The
start-up offers $5 worth free snack when ordered through app. Currently Kiki
Air is using iOS app. The app is being tested on a small sample of students,
and the developers plan on creating an Android app. The app developers plan on
eventually functioning beyond Yale’s campus.
Kiki Air functions with the view of reducing carbon
footprint, creating jobs and providing a more environmentally friendly,
convenient alternative. Once the order is placed, the sundries are loaded and
attached to drones. After confirming that the location is safe for delivery,
the drone drops off the order in a padded envelope. CEO Jason Lu’20 conceived
of the original idea and recruited, co-founder Orman to work on publicity and
marketing. Kiki Air has seen success, winning Y Combinator and received a grant
for $1,50,000 and fund from various angel investors.As perfect as it may seem, Kiki Air couldn’t doge
controversy. A video showed a Kiki Air drone falling from the sky on library
Walk, the incident was confirmed by the Yale students. Though Oman insisted
that it was a controlled launching. Lu assured that the founders take safety
extremely seriously, and spend many hours training the drone pilots. Since the
incident the drop off locations have been changed and has given its pilot more
training. Still seven Yale students interviewed by the News gave a positive
experience with Kiki Air’s service. Kiki Air is planning to launch fully in the
coming semester.
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