Food Delivery Drones Get One Step Closer to Reality

Uber Eats will begin testing its new drone technology in San Diego in just a couple of weeks. While the new look for its drone utilizes “innovative rotating wings with six rotors” to better enable the transition between vertical takeoff and forward flight, that’s not the story. Nor is the fact that this looks like a mini version of Uber’s air taxi prototype that will be designed to carry passengers. George Jetson is smiling.

What’s interesting to me is that they are testing a hub system in which the drones will leave—presumably—a ghost kitchen with the food and meet an Uber Eats driver at a particular location for the last-mile delivery. This will allow for faster delivery times while still offering a more personal service, which for many is less scary than the idea of a drone at their door step.

It will have a total flight range of 18 miles without a delivery, and 12 miles with one. And the drone can hover in wind speeds up to 30 miles per hour. The drones are here. Get used to it.