Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Payment processor Worldpay Inc. said Tuesday that it is testing what it calls Drone Pay, a payment system for drone-based package deliveries.
“Worldpay’s Drone Pay proof of concept uses EMV contactless payment card technology to verify the identity of the recipient, ensuring a parcel is delivered to the right person at the right address,” Symmes Township, Ohio-based Worldpay said in a news release. “This technology is embedded into a drone landing pad which is issued to the customer in the form of a doormat. When the drone lands to drop off the package, the card details stored within the doormat are read automatically. If the information matches that of the correct recipient, the parcel is released.”
The payment technology is drone-agnostic and simply clips on to the device, Worldpay said. The company did not release details about where or with how many households it is testing the prototype. “Worldpay isn’t currently piloting/testing this technology with any retailer, but based on this proof of concept, they’re really excited about the possibilities this has for their clients down the line when they choose to implement it,” a spokesperson tells Digital Transactions News by email.
Worldpay, which announced the prototype in other countries too, also reported results of a July survey of U.S. consumers by Socratic Technologies about receptivity to deliveries and transaction authentication involving drones. Over half of respondents said they would be comfortable having clothing, non-perishable groceries, and pet supplies delivered via drone, Worldpay said.
Seventy-three percent of respondents said they would prefer to enter a code or PIN and 61% preferred a chip-enabled card (61 percent) as a security measure to validate a drone delivery and prevent parcel fraud. Consumers preferred those authentication measures over biometric verification methods, according to Worldpay.
