Drone delivery is finally having its moment

Major grocery and retail players are rolling out drone delivery programs, so getting dinner ingredients delivered by air may soon be as common as ordering through an app.Chipotle/ZiplineDrone delivery is gaining momentum with pilot programs from Chipotle, GoTo Foods, and beyond.Regulatory changes, including a June executive order, have given the sector a significant boost.Safety, reliability, and noise concerns remain as drone delivery expands in suburban areas.After years of stalled experiments and regulatory hurdles, drone delivery is beginning to take flight in the US.Chipotle in August began teaming up with drone delivery and logistics provider Zipline to ensure Dallas area fans can get their burritos and bowls delivered — anytime, and almost any place. In June, GoTo Foods partnered with DoorDash and Wing to bring items from its portfolio of brands, including Auntie Anne's and Jamba, to three Texas markets: Frisco, Fort Worth, and Plano.The pilot programs build upon short-lived drone delivery experiments from other brands that have been rolled out and subsequently discontinued over the last decade, like the Flytrex and El Pollo Loco partnership, which briefly took to the skies in 2021.This moment, however, seems to be different, five industry insiders told Business Insider."I do think it's an inflection point for the industry," Kent Ferguson, head of partnerships for Wing, said. "We have an improving regulatory framework to allow us to service more customers and scale much more quickly. We have the infrastructure that is flexible, cost-effective, and we have the planes on hand — thousands of planes — to service the millions of customers."Multiple companies, including Zipline, Wing, Flytrex, and DroneUp, are vying for commercial drone dominance with their unique designs of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, for short. Some of the aircraft resemble miniature passenger planes, while others resemble hobbyist drones, featuring four rotating propellers and an attached payload.From an operational standpoint, the challenges of drone delivery for participating retailers are the same as those of an order being picked up by a human driver or a robot courier, GoTo Foods' chief commercial officer, Kieran Donahue, told Business Insider."We still have to make sure we get the right items in the bag, that the food is prepared properly," Donahue said. "It doesn't matter whether it's coming from a DoorDasher in a traditional car or a drone."The benefits to retailers, though, are clear: faster delivery times, lower labor costs, and increased customer satisfaction — and it's not just GoTo Foods and Chipotle that want in on the perks. Major grocery players, including Walmart and Amazon, are rolling out pilot programs at scale. Getting dinner ingredients delivered by drone may soon be as common as ordering take-out through Grubhub or Uber Eats.A recent regulatory breakthroughAlthough drone technology has become increasingly useful to the commercial sector in recent years due to technological advancements, the recent momentum isn't thanks to better hardware alone — it's also due to the regulatory climate.L.R. Fox is the founder and CEO of WhiteFox Defense Technologies and vice chair of the US Chamber of Commerce Drone Committee. He told Business Insider that a June executive order signed by President Donald Trump was a catalytic moment for the industry. It signaled a path forward and broke through an otherwise complicated web of federal regulations that had prevented widespread adoption."The key thing that enables drone delivery is known as 'Beyond Visual Line of Sight,'" Fox said. "Up until this point, you have companies that had literally a guy standing on a rooftop, flying the drone until he can't see anymore, and then another guy standing on a rooftop and taking over control of the drone."The executive order set the stage for the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration, which control the country's airspace, to enable and monitor routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations for drones for commercial and public safety purposes.So far, the test programs are gaining traction and shaving precious minutes off delivery times, representatives for both GoTo Foods and Chipotle told Business Insider."What's unique about drone delivery is, with this particular technology, we don't have to implement the drones at every restaurant to be able to still have full coverage of an area," Chipotle chief technology officer Curt Garner said. "One restaurant out of five or six may be able to have the same delivery radius that we would typically experience with somebody going into a restaurant and driving a car as a courier."The Texas market, in particular, has been a playground for drone pilot programs, in part because of its temperate weather and the layout of its cities, Harrison Shih, head of the DoorDash Drone Program, told Business Insider."It's fairly suburban, a lot of single-family homes," Shih said. "These are the profiles that drones fly really well in, where they can lower packages."The DoorDash Drone Program is also operating in Charlotte, North Carolina, for similar reasons. Both sites offer the company essential testing data for scaling up in more congested neighborhoods."Hopefully, what we see in 2026 is that the market will open up, and more and more metropolitan areas will be able to be covered," Shih said.Still to tackle: No-drone zones and propeller noiseStill, as these experiments move closer to the mainstream, questions about safety and reliability persist.A 2024 survey by the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation found that 70% of respondents were concerned that drones would disturb their neighborhoods and may be unsafe, and 51% would oppose legislation to expand US airspace for delivery drones."Right now, if somebody launched a drone and had a bomb on it, there's very little anybody can do to stop it," Fox said. "Not from a technology standpoint, but just from a deployment and authorities standpoint — local or state law enforcement cannot do anything to stop a drone, it's a federal crime for them to do that, which is insane."Federal authorities have limited authority to disable or destroy threatening drones that pose a threat to their facilities or national security. Proposed laws aim to grant state and local police more authority, but have not yet been passed.One of the primary concerns in the industry now is that when companies fly hundreds or thousands of drones a day across various populated areas, "one of them is going to have some kind of incident," Fox said."So working through how that's resolved is definitely a factor," he added. "Then, trying to ensure that it doesn't cause a complete halt or pause to the industry."Beyond the safety concerns, other practical considerations are still being addressed, such as determining suitable delivery zones and mitigating noise from propeller blades."The likelihood of the drone delivery straight to your window is very far off," Fox said. "We might not ever see in our lifetimes."For now, when using platforms like Wing and Zipline, customers mark their preferred delivery zone when setting up their order — generally required to be a flat surface the size of a picnic blanket with clear skies overhead.Garner said Zipline is addressing noise concerns from both design and operational standpoints: "The drones are quite high in the air when the payload is lowered, so that buzzing noise that you would typically associate with a zone with the drone isn't audible," he said.Even with hurdles ahead, the companies testing drones say the momentum is more real now than it has been before. By shaving minutes off delivery times, reducing labor costs, and opening up new occasions for off-premise dining — from soccer fields to suburban cul-de-sacs — drones are being positioned not as a gimmick but as a serious tool in the future of last-mile logistics.If these trials succeed, the next frontier in convenience shopping might not be at your doorstep, but hovering right above it.Read the original article on Business Insider

Comments

Business News

Brexit impact on UK economy will be negative for foreseeable future, Bailey warns

Independent

Comments

Similar News

Food delivery drones could soon be roaming British skies

Russia Is Shutting Down Its Own Internet To Stop Ukrainian Drones

Ukraine's long-range drone strikes are punishing the industry fueling Russia's war

Backpack drones with lasers are taking a critical job from multimillion-dollar aircraft and protecting pilots in the process

As The Drone War Intensifies, Ukrainians Fight To Care For Their Own

Ukraine says a massive Russian overnight missile and drone barrage was packed with 100,000 foreign-made parts

Key Air Force Unit Buys The Army’s New Heavy Quadcopter Drone

Russia’s New Missile And Drone Strategy Tests Ukraine’s Air Defenses

Former Air Force drone operator says the job isn't like a video game. 'There's not a single game in the world that can prep you.'

Ukraine’s Sea Drones Are Now Launching Unjammable Fiber-Optic Drones

Europe is making a cheap anti-drone rocket for Ukraine that blasts a cloud of steel balls

Russia says it bombed Ukrainian drones. Satellite image analysis suggests it only hit crop trucks.

NATO allies are betting on tanks, even as exploding drones are wiping them out in Ukraine

NATO's building a 'Walmart' for bargain drone-killers cheaper than jets and missiles to counter Russia, top commander says

Ukraine Increases Drone Strikes On Russian Military And Oil Trains

Munich airport reopens after drone sightings force closure

Russia is stepping up its hunt for top targets: the pilots powering Ukraine's drone fight

Photos show an F-35 flaunting a fresh kill marking after the stealth fighter made NATO history by downing Russian drones

Russian pilots are turning unjammable drones into flying IEDs to ambush Ukrainian vehicles

Russian gasoline production buckles under Ukrainian drone strikes

Business News

Brexit impact on UK economy will be negative for foreseeable future, Bailey warns

2025 F1 United States Grand Prix Sprint Results: Verstappen Wins, McLaren Suffers Double Disaster

AEW WrestleDream 2025 Match Card, Start Time, Odds And Where To Stream

Want To Build Food Resilience? Start By Making Jam

Anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ Rallies Begin In Thousands Of U.S. Cities (Photos)

I love having an identical twin. It's such a privilege.

Brexit impact on UK economy ‘negative for foreseeable future,’ Bailey says

What To Watch This Weekend: New Shows And Movies To Stream On Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Apple TV And More

NYT Connections Today: Hints And Answers For Sunday, October 19 (#861)

How James Bond Can Be Reinvigorated By Amazon MGM

Formula 1 Standings 2025: Which Drivers Have The Best Shot At The Title?

Will There Be ‘The Diplomat’ Season 4? How Season 3’s Twist Ending Sets It Up

The Snobs’ Attack On Gold Is Failing, Thanks To Bitcoin

Asked About ‘Boots,’ The Pentagon Cites Netflix ‘Woke Garbage’

What Happened To Ajike Owens? The Disturbing True Story Behind ‘The Perfect Neighbor’

Paramount Skydance to cut 2,000 jobs starting final week of October: report

Lithium Battery Fire Aboard Air China Flight Forces Emergency Landing

Developing Rosebank oil field ‘pure climate vandalism’, Scottish Green insists

Developing Rosebank oil field ‘pure climate vandalism’, Scottish Green insists

Why ‘The Diplomat’ Should Be The Model For All Netflix Shows

Mega Millions Jackpot Rises To $650 Million—Here’s How Much The Winner Could Take Home After Taxes

‘This new £7 glow-boosting skin tint instantly makes me look less tired’

The most iconic food in every state

I hadn't seen my sister for 2 years. We met in Liechtenstein to reconnect.

My stay at a luxury villa in Orlando was a wildly good value. I had a private pool and easy access to Disney World.

Regan Smith Takes Down American Record At Swimming World Cup

NFL 2025 Week 7 Fantasy Football Top DFS Single Entry And GPP Stacks

Justin Bieber Charts Another Pop Radio No. 1 — Which Superstars Does He Tie?

Sabrina Carpenter Scores New Top 10 Hits — And She Had Help From The World’s Biggest Star

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Is Catching Up To Rosé’s Historic Radio Success

Chris Jericho Could Be Next Marquee AEW Star To Leave For WWE

Danny Garcia Vs. Daniel Gonzalez: Odds, Records, Prediction

'I've cleaned my floors three times this week after buying Shark steam mop'

DWP officials to be given power to view claimants' bank details under new law

Molly-Mae Hague's 'stunning' Tom Ford perfume is down to £5 in money-saving deal

Amazon cuts 33% off a dehumidifier recommended for 'battling condensation and damp'

Martin Lewis advice could lead to free £400 'before Christmas'

This hot chocolate advent calendar saves you £2 a day on fancy takeaway drinks

All employees urged to check 3 vital details on their payslips

'VIP airport lounge staff gave us half price - here's how to do it'

The best advice I ever got about work-life balance came from a past boyfriend's mom. It's shaped my life for 2 decades.

I visited a 'haunted' 18th-century mansion in New York City and saw things I couldn't fully explain

7 celebrities who competed at Miss USA, including Olivia Culpo and Halle Berry

Opinion: Susan Stamberg gave NPR its voice

Ofcom orders BBC to air on TV finding that Gaza film broke broadcasting rules

What The Outcome Of Trump’s Meeting With Zelensky Means For Putin

Taylor Swift Passes Ariana Grande With Her New Chart-Topping Smash

$15 Billion Bitcoin Seizure Exposes Challenges For US Crypto Reserve Strategy

From Stay-At-Home Mom To Comedy Star, How Zarna Garg Turns Punchlines Into Profits

Hit Netflix Show Returns With Peak Worldwide Interest

Saturday, October 18. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine

The Marvel Show Which Cost Just $30 Million To Make

Rasmus Hojlund’s Napoli Revival Is A Cautionary Tale For Man United

‘I’ve resisted buying a pricey heated airer by doing this clever free trick instead’

Every Nationwide branch that's staying open until at least 2028

Martin Lewis's superb radiator hack costs less than £10 but could save tonnes on heating bills

'I was love-bombed by a Somalia doctor on Facebook - then forced into sick blood oath'