First time in India, second time in the world.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Although humanity may be a long ways away from flying cars, we could be seeing flying deliveries become a standard occurrence in the near future.
Mere months after Amazon announced its initiative to start drone deliveries of certain smaller-sized packages within the continental United States, Mumbai-based Francesco’s Pizzeria successfully used a drone to deliver a pizza. The flight, which was only a test, took the pizza from the Pizzeria to a local customer’s residence, less than one mile away, reports the Press Trust of India.
This isn’t the world’s first pizza delivered by a drone – a Dominos Pizza franchise in the United Kingdom pulled off the same thing last year, and it’s almost certain that someone could have used a build-it-yourself drone to deliver a pizza – but this is India’s first major drone delivery, and could signal a major shift in how restaurants and retailers get around the traffic jammed streets of India.
In addition to India, the UK, and the US, drones have made a splash in other major countries. The United Arab Emirates stated in February that it will start using drones as a way of “delivering its government services,” according to CNet.com.
Mikhel Rajani told PTI that he believes drone deliveries will be standard practice in the next five years, with drones being relatively inexpensive at just $2,000. For now, however, drones simply haven’t taken off (pun intended), largely because of various aviation regulations that each country has, which puts strict limits on how high drones can fly and where they can operate.
Amazon is perhaps the highest-profile company to really get behind drone delivery. As mentioned earlier, the company is planning to offer an Amazon Prime Air service, which can deliver packages of a certain size and weight – about the size of a large shoebox, and no more than five pounds – within a radius of about ten miles. Amazon claims that the service can deliver an order within 30 minutes of ordering.
But questions linger over the safety of drones, not just from a regulatory standpoint, but how to prevent drones from crashing into buildings, telephone cables, low-flying aircraft, or even each other. These various issues will need to be sorted out before drones can become a common sight in the skies above your head.
And drone deliveries will almost surely cost extra than your standard human delivery. But hey, at least you won’t have to tip the robot that brings you your pizza.