Amazon.com recently announced Prime Air: they are going to deliver packages via drone. San Francisco innovators Skycatch announced TacoCopter, drone-based taco deliveries. They just raised $13.2 million.
Francesco’s Pizzeria in Mumbai, India – a city of 12 million people on the Ancient Silk Route – has upped the stakes in the global robot fast food market, using a drone to deliver a pizza a mile away from their store. They see the $2000 drones as a way to beat Exodus Mumbai’s notorious traffic.
From Upriser:
Inspired by Amazon’s plans to deliver goods by unmanned drones, a pizzeria in Mumbai, India shows this video that their flying pizza delivery drone deliversThey’ve always come topped with pepperoni, chicken tikka or vegetarian; but the flying variety is new.
Staff at Francesco’s Pizzeria in south Mumbai were inspired by the news that online retail giant Amazon was planning to use unmanned drones to deliver goods, and decided to try one out as a means to beat the city’s notorious traffic.“We successfully carried out a test delivery by sending a pizza to a customer located 1.5 kilometre away from our outlet on May 11,” Francesco’s Pizzeria chief executive Mikhel Rajani told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.
“What we have done now will be common place in the next four to five years,” he said, adding that the customized four-rotor drones each cost around $2,000.
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Perhaps it’s called “chicken tikka” after the noise the rotors make.
The pizza company got questioned by the local authorities about the flight. It seems they hadn’t figured out all the palms they need to grease. If you’ve read Shantaram you have an idea of how Mumbai works.
From NDTV:
The usage of unmanned drone for the first time in India by a city-based pizza shop for delivery here has come under scanner of Mumbai police, which will seek an explanation from the outlet as to why it did not inform them before carrying out the experiment.
Police will also ask Air Traffic Controller whether Francesco’s Pizzeria outlet had a correspondence with them.
When contacted, an ATC official said he did not know whether the outlet had sought permission from them.
The official, however, categorically stated, “As per norms, permission must be taken for flying any such object.”
“We are very sensitive towards anything that flies in the sky with the help of remote control. We will certainly ask the outlet’s administration as to why it did not inform us before carrying out this experiment. We also seek full details pertaining to the drone test,” Madhukar Pandey, Additional Police Commissioner (Central Region) in whose jurisdiction the drone was flown, told PTI.
“We will also ask the ATC if it was consulted by the outlet. After studying all the aspects, we will decide the future course of action,” Pandey said.
According to sources, terror threat has been lingering over the city and inputs available with police suggest that terror organisations might strike using paragliding and unmanned drones.
Police will also ask Air Traffic Controller whether Francesco’s Pizzeria outlet had a correspondence with them.
When contacted, an ATC official said he did not know whether the outlet had sought permission from them.
The official, however, categorically stated, “As per norms, permission must be taken for flying any such object.”
“We are very sensitive towards anything that flies in the sky with the help of remote control. We will certainly ask the outlet’s administration as to why it did not inform us before carrying out this experiment. We also seek full details pertaining to the drone test,” Madhukar Pandey, Additional Police Commissioner (Central Region) in whose jurisdiction the drone was flown, told PTI.“We will also ask the ATC if it was consulted by the outlet. After studying all the aspects, we will decide the future course of action,” Pandey said.
According to sources, terror threat has been lingering over the city and inputs available with police suggest that terror organisations might strike using paragliding and unmanned drones.
One benefit of drone delivery? Like Über, you don’t need to tip.
These pizza guys should team up with Burning Man aerial catering specialist Steven Gluckstern.
Used to be, if you wanted food from the sky, you had to shoot a bird. Now there’s an app for that…maybe they should call it “Hungry Birds”
