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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

delivery drones

Walmart Invests in On-Demand Drone Delivery Startup DroneUp

Walmart announced this week that they’ve made an investment in on-demand drone delivery startup DroneUp. The latter provides delivery services to its customers via on-demand access to its network of over 10,000-strong pilot workforce

The deal is an evolution of Walmart’s existing relationship with DroneUp, who the company partnered with in 2020 to launch trial deliveries of COVID-19 test kits. According to this week’s release, Walmart and DroneUp delivered hundreds of kits and were able to do so much faster than typical delivery.

In DroneUp, Walmart has invested in a leading third party drone delivery services company. DroneUp was the first services operator to use the FAA part 107.39 waiver which allows them to operate drone delivery services over people and cars. Additionally, the company arguably operates the closest thing to an Uber-for-drone delivery platform with its patented technology that matches delivery jobs with pilots in local proximity to a job and sends them an offer through an app.

For Walmart, the DroneUp deal lines up with the company’s past strategy of working with third-party delivery providers rather than building their own drone delivery technology and workforce. This approach contrasts significantly with Amazon, who kicked off the world-at-large’s interest in the idea of drone delivery when Jeff Bezos famously debuted the PrimeAir drone on 60 Minutes.

So while Amazon (and Google) have both built their own proprietary delivery drone platforms as well as invested billions in all that goes into building their own drone delivery networks, Walmart is essentially sidling up closer with a company that turnkeys much of the work for them. DroneUp already has access to a geographically dispersed and wide network of pilots and has all the regulatory approvals needed to start delivery immediately.

According to the announcement, Walmart will begin its first trial of on-demand local delivery in its home town of Bentonville, Arkansas in the next few months.

Uber Drones to Drop Fancy In-N-Haute Burgers on San Diego

“Uber,” “drones,” and “delivery” are three words we’re going to see a lot of in future. Late last week, word got out that the company has been testing food delivery via drones in San Diego, dropping McDonald’s meals off at set locations.

This week, we learned Uber has also added some fine dining to the drone delivery menu from Juniper & Ivy. The upscale restaurant, which is the brainchild of Richard Blais and Mike Rosen, will make its “In-N-Haute” burger available through Uber Eats for drone delivery once the program kicks off. As the name suggests, item is a $21 take on In-N-Out’s signature “double-double” burger, complete with brioche bun and a fancy take on In-N-Out’s famous “animal-style” sauce.

Once these overpriced burgers hit the air, supplies will reportedly be very limited, with no more than a dozen orders available on any given evening, according to Sandiagoville.com.

For the Uber delivery program, food isn’t dropped via drone directly on your doorstep. Rather, the drone flies it to a set drop-off location where an Uber Eats driver will retrieve it and take it the rest of the way. As my colleague Chris Albrecht pointed out when he wrote about the program last week, “This may seem overly complicated, but Uber says a drone can travel 1.5 miles in 7 minutes versus 21 minutes by ground. So a drone could fly past city congestion to shave off delivery time, even with a pick-up car involved.”

Shaving time off the delivery process will be especially important for expensive burgers that could go cold very quickly while in transit.

The In-N-Haute will be Juniper & Ivy’s only menu item available for drone delivery once Uber’s program kicks off, which will be in either late summer or early fall 2019. No word yet as to whether the restaurant will add more items as Uber’s delivery programs gets its legs.

What will be most interesting about this test is whether people will actually pay $21 (plus delivery fees and tip) to get a high-end burger delivered and, more important, if they’d do it on a regular basis. That’s presumably why Uber’s chosen to test its drone deliveries via two extremes: haute cuisine and fast food. Whichever is more successful in terms of both quality of the food when it finally arrives at your door step as well as overall customer satisfaction with the experience, will tell Uber a lot about where to bet its hand in the upcoming drone delivery race.