They came out of the scene previously and are now back. After all, they’re the bridge to the future.
According to the media, Uber Eats has resumed testing food delivery drones in the United States after a short pause.
Previously, Ridesharing Forum reported Flytrex, a firm providing drone deliveries, partnering with a food delivery service, but it’s DoorDash. Oh my, oh my. This time, it’s Uber Eats. During Flytrex’s tie-up with DoorDash, the focus was in Texas.
Based on DoorDash’s email to Ridesharing Forum then, several participating restaurants, such as The Brass Tap, Papa Johns, and many more, have started moving their items through drones.
Flytrex is also among the drone operators of Walmart’s drone delivery services, delivering food in some parts of the United States.
It is among the four service providers to have gotten approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations, where pilots could not see directly the aircraft they are piloting.
All the companies involved are saying that the partnership will provide the opportunity for Uber Eats users to get their orders delivered in just within minutes. For, they are drones, while also reducing road congestions.
They are also planning to launch a pilot drone delivery service in key markets in the United States by the end of this year.
Sure, several companies are partnered with Flytrex, but it seems that it is only Uber Eats that’s investing in Flytrex. Uber Eats is giving Flytrex the resources to accelerate the implementation of drone technology in the United States.
“Autonomous technology is transforming mobility and delivery faster than ever before. With Flytrex, we’re entering the next chapter, bringing the speed and sustainability of drone delivery to the Uber Eats platform at scale for the first time,” stated Sarfraz Maredia, the president of Autonomous Mobility and Delivery at Uber.
This is a bigger undertaking for Uber, as it is expecting that this pilot program will have much bigger impact than its previous initiatives. It was as early as 2018 when Uber’s chief executive officer, Dara Khosrowshahi, talked about the possibility of launching a drone food delivery service by 2021.
It was in 2020, at the time of the pandemic, when a project known to be Uber Elevate, carried out some test deliveries in collaboration with McDonald’s, but the full scale of the project never came into fruition.
The company also introduced its own drone, capable of vertical takeoff and landing, which means it could bring food for two people, but it is not clear what happened to the project.
The Ridesharing Forum’s take? Drones are still drones. While they are beneficial for customers, since they could receive their orders fast, drones are taking the jobs of human delivery staff, like how artificial intelligence and chatbots are taking the work of human employees.
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