Uber eats: “your order will be flown to you”

To ramp up its Uber Eats service that partners with restaurants, Uber will now test food delivery by drone.

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At its Uber Elevate Summit, it announced that it had been given regulatory approval to begin tests of delivering food by drone in the region of San Diego, California.

“Our goal is to expand Uber Eats drone delivery so we can provide more options to more people at the tap of a button,” said Luke Fischer, head of flight operations at Uber Elevate.

“We believe that Uber is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge as we’re able to leverage the Uber Eats network of restaurant partners and delivery partners as well as the aviation experience and technology of Uber Elevate.”

The drones, for logistical reasons, will not deliver directly to customers but at a drop-off location where an Uber Eats driver will complete the order.

To allow the final delivery by hand in the future, Uber hopes to land the drones on parked vehicles located near each delivery location.

It added that it had developed a proprietary airspace management system called Elevate Cloud Systems that will guide the drones to their location

Across the United States, the transport company is aiming for a potentially large-scale service via its food service partners.

After initially testing the new venture with McDonald’s in San Diego, its set to expand and include additional Uber Eats restaurants later this year.