Andreas Raptopoulos wants to serve the 1 billion people on Earth with no access to all-season roads — the one-seventh of the world’s population that is too often cut off from critical medicines, supplies and goods.

Going off-road used to mean tearing up dirt tracks in a powerful four-by-four or gigantic monster truck. For two ambitious tech start-ups however, the term has come to comprise something more subtle and potentially revolutionary. While the idea may sound far-fetched to those unfamiliar with the latest in civilian drone technology, preliminary vehicle testing has already taken place.

Matternet wants to reframe the way the world looks at drones and use them to connect people living way off the grid

The drone glides through the sky before descending silently upon a poverty-stricken community to drop its load — but this particular unmanned aircraft is delivering medicine and chocolate

A fleet of small flying drones could speed up the delivery of medicines and other supplies to remote areas, and even provide a cheaper alternative to a road network, according to Matternet, a start-up company in the United States.

Fleet of drones could accelerate humanitarian responses and prove cheaper than roads – but research on safety needed

That is the idea behind Matternet. The drones would move matter like the Internet moves bits. Andreas Raptopoulos argues the cost would be minuscule compared with paving over a huge portion of the planet.

Drones can deliver medicine and emergency supplies -- and perhaps shake up the retail world, too. So says the leader of Matternet, a startup creating a network of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Two start-ups want to replace road transport with swarms of tiny autonomous helicopters. Meet the organizations with sky-high ambitions.

We heard a presentation about a new mode of package transport called Matternet. MatterNet proposes to build a network of ground stations for a fleet of autonomous flying drones which can deliver packages of food, medicine ad other critical items

Last week, Google invited about 50 entrepreneurs, innovators, and scientists to the deluxe CordeValle resort in the mountains south of San Jose.

Matternet, a Silicon Valley start-up, has proposed a network of drones to deliver food and medicine in isolated regions around the world that are now inaccessible because they have no roads.

Where Matternet is going, it doesn’t need roads. But the people there need food and medicine. And these drones can bring it to them.

Kurzweil, Diamandis and other tech dignitaries at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. lauded the latest class of graduates from the summer-long program for training entrepreneurs on how to create a company that will have an impact the lives of a billion people.