Well, this was one headline I never thought I’d get to write.
Mumbai’s Francesco Pizzeria used an unmanned aerial drone to deliver a pizza to one of its customers on May 11. The customer, whose apartment was in a high-rise building, lived about 1.5 kms away from the pizzeria outlet and received the pizza from the drone in less time than it would take a delivery person. As Medianama points out, this does appear to be a well thought out and well planned publicity event. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy, especially at a time when Amazon has also been trying out drones for package deliveries.
While speaking to the media, the chief executive of Francesco Pizzeria, Mikhel Rajani said that the drone delivery was just a test run but it did appear to be more economical than relying on delivery boys. He revealed that the drone cost $2,000 (about Rs. 1.2 lakhs) and it was modified to be able to carry the pizza. The modified drone has an effective range of 8 kms which means that it will be able to make deliveries within a radius of 4 kms.
Don’t expect pizza deliveries via drones to become a regular thing though. Security restrictions prevent such drones from flying at an altitude of more than 400 feet or near sensitive locations.
You can watch the video of the drone delivering the pizza below:
| |