Startup to Trial Autonomous Aircraft in Rural Areas of Canada

According to Northern Ontario Business, Ribbit, a Canadian air cargo startup, intends to conduct pilotless flights for deliveries in remote regions of the country. The company has secured a $1.3 million contract with Transport Canada and Innovative Solutions Canada to commence autonomous test flights within the next year.

“Many rural and remote areas are served by larger aircraft that fly infrequently,” CEO Carl Pigeon said in a press release earlier this month. “Ribbit takes a smaller aircraft and uses autonomy to significantly change the unit economics of the aircraft. This allows us to provide reliable next-day or two-day service and improve supply chains.”

The company starts with small two-passenger leisure planes. It plans to remove the seats to make room for cargo, then make the plane fully autonomous using remote control software and hardware. The idea originated as a project by students at the University of Waterloo, including founders Jeremy Wang and Carl Pigeon. Ribbit said its aircraft uses remote pilots to monitor progress, communicate with air traffic controllers and generally provide backup.

The company has already signed contracts with retailers and wholesalers, including local businesses serving the province. The goal is to meet the demand for timely deliveries of food, medical supplies and others. “The goal is really to try to improve that transportation link so that we can get food and other perishables, time-sensitive goods, medical supplies, etc. to these communities at a lower cost to the end consumer more reliably and more often,” Wang told Northern Ontario Business.

There are already several competitors in this space, the most notable of which is Xwing, which has already operated independent gate-to-gate commercial cargo flights. This company uses much larger aircraft, namely modified Cessna Grand Caravan 208B utility aircraft equipped with Xwing’s Autoflight software. Another competitor in the space is Reliable Robotics (founded by former SpaceX and Tesla engineers), which has also conducted successful remotely piloted cargo tests.

Ribbit is smaller than these players, but it knows its customers and its territory well. “Whether it’s air cargo, asset monitoring or maritime patrol, we’ve identified a number of applications for the technology,” Wang said. “Customers value our ability to deeply understand their operations – then reimagine them independently.”