Project Wing is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the company that owns Google and X Development LLC.

The latter is a "moonshot" research and development facility that is exploring futuristic technologies including self-driving cars, electricity generating kites and a world wide wireless internet service using high altitude balloons.

Project Wing, originally an X Development project, only recently became an entity in its own right.

Australian drone delivery testing began in Royalla, a site chosen because of its large backyards and relatively low population density, in mid-2017.

By early 2018 sufficient progress had been made to move the project into a more urbanised environment. Local trials, initially involving a fast food company and a chemist, were launched in Bonython in late February.

While the project has been strongly supported by the ACT government, which knows an innovation opportunity when it sees one, it hasn't been welcomed with open arms by all in the community.

There have been numerous complaints about what Bonython residents see as a lack of consultation ahead of the launch of the Canberra trial.

While many of the basic questions, such as safety, noise minimisation, and privacy are addressed on Wing's website, the fact remains many Canberrans just aren't comfortable with the idea of 1.5 metre wide, load-carrying, semi-autonomous aircraft cruising overhead at low altitude at speeds of up to 120 km/h.

A major concern has been the decision by CASA to exempt the drones used in the trials from the standing restrictions on drone use that prohibit them from being operated within 30 metres of people and buildings.

Project Wing's drones, which have been developed specifically as delivery vehicles by the company, typically fly at about 20 to 30 metres above the ground and descend to seven metres to lower their cargo.

While the company makes the point the drones are generally quieter than if a truck was used to make the delivery "it is a new sound that may at first be unfamiliar to people".

Friday's news Wing is about to introduce a permanent household delivery service in Canberra's north will likely spark fresh community debate and concerns over the need for consultation.

The company has secured a warehouse in Mitchell which it will use as a base for deliveries to Gungahlin, Palmerston, Crace and Franklin. This is a big step up from the Bonython trial, itself soon to be the subject of an inquiry by the ACT Legislative Assembly, in both scope and scale.

"We decided to invest in our first ever ongoing operation in Canberra because it's a growing, innovative, city and Canberrans have a reputation as early adopters of new technology," Wing's James Ryan Burgess said.

If this technology is to be successfully rolled out on a global scale it is vital to listen to the concerns of the people who are affected by it.

Getting the technology right is the easy part. The real challenge is to manage the service's introduction in such a way it is the best possible fit with the communities it is intended to serve.