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Your next Uber Eats order could get delivered to you via drone.
Uber Technologies announced Thursday it is partnering with Flytrex, an autonomous drone delivery system, to fly food deliveries to its customers. The company said it would roll out the service in U.S. Uber Eats pilot markets by the end of the year.
“Uber aims to build the world’s most flexible, multimodal delivery network — expanding beyond cars, bikes and couriers to sidewalk robots and now autonomous aerial delivery,” Uber said in its statement.
The company, known for its ride-sharing services, said it would also invest in Flytrex to “to accelerate the development and deployment of drone delivery technology” without specifying the size of the investment.
Flytrex drones have flown over 200,000 meals to suburban households in the past three years, according to Uber. It is one of four companies authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct “Beyond Visual Line of Sight” operations, which is when a pilot cannot see the aircraft with the naked eye.
Uber did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s comment seeking information on where the service will be piloted and how deliveries will work.
The announcement marks another advancement for Uber, which in May started delivering food via sidewalk robots in Los Angeles. Last week, the company announced plans to let customers book helicopter rides through its ride-sharing app.
Reached for comment on where the drone delivery service will be piloted and how deliveries will work, Uber pointed to its “existing robotic delivery partnerships,” as precedent, saying that “there is no consumer price difference between when an AV is dispatched or a courier.”
Added the company, “There are no additional details to share at this time.”
Uber shares have climbed more than 50% since the start of the year.
Drones enter mainstream
Other companies have also waded into drone delivery as the technology becomes more mainstream.
DoorDash, one of Uber Eats’ competitors, announced a partnership with Flytrex in June to deliver food in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Chipotle is also piloting drone technology in the Texas city. Last month it said it would fly food to customers in Dallas through a partnership with Zipline, which also has FAA approval for commercial drone deliveries.
#Uber #pilot #food #delivery #drone #partnership #Flytrex
“We are talking about over the airport, over taxiways, over runways,” Suffolk County’s chief deputy sheriff, Chris Brockmeyer, told local news. “That’s a serious safety concern. It’s impacted air operations, and we’re not going to stand for it.” On Christmas Day alone, the airport was besieged by 17 drone incidents, according to the Suffolk County sheriff, who has staff that collaborate informally with the Tedescos. Some of these drones, Suffolk County executive Ed Romaine asserted at a press conference, were “as large as a car.”
MARCO GIANNAVOLA
The Tedescos couldn’t use their powerful active radar system so close to an airport, so they deployed their handheld millimeter-wave radar, a more sensitive version of the radar guns that police use to catch speeders. Through the cloud cover and the snowfall, the Tedescos said, they were able to track about two or three objects with this device.
But the truly interesting find came from their radio frequency scanners, which detected spikes three times the strength of what they’ve picked up from ordinary hobbyist quadcopters.
I later learned that the two frequencies where those spikes occurred are within a band (1780 to 1850 megahertz) that has been reserved for US government communications. It’s used for military tactical radio relay, precision-guided munitions, drones, and other Defense Department systems, including electronic warfare, software-defined radio, and tactical targeting networking technology, according to the FCC.
Granted, many portions of this band are devoted to less cloak-and-dagger agencies, like the Department of Agriculture and the Tennessee Valley Authority. But the signals suggested that whatever the Tedescos were tracking above Gabreski Airport, they were likely not from hobbyists. Instead, they might have been from a government project or from something, like an enemy surveillance drone, hoping to pass off its signals as just another heavily siloed “top secret” broadcast.
MARCO GIANNAVOLA
“For operations security reasons, we do not provide information on frequencies which our Air National Guard units use,” a spokesperson said via email, adding: “We could not comment on use of the electromagnetic spectrum by other government agencies.” The FCC did not respond to requests for comment.
Gerry says he and his brother passed their information on this case, including the observations of unusual radio frequency spikes, along to the FBI. “We’re working closely with the FBI,” John says. Gerry adds, “We gauge it by their interest level in what we’re doing.”
“When they get more enthusiastic,” he continues, before John finishes his thought: “… we know we’re closer and closer to something.”
#brothers #goto #experts #Americas #mystery #drone #invasion
In 2024 alone, 350 known drone incursions were reported over a hundred different US military installations. A lack of coordination or even clarity from the White House, Pentagon or US intelligence community has led some in domestic law enforcement to turn to an unlikely source for help cracking the case of these mystery drones: two UFO hunters out on Long Island in New York called John and Gerald Tedesco.
The twin brothers each spent about three decades in the private sector working in electrical engineering and instrumentation design before they decided to kit out an old RV with an array of homemade signals collection equipment.
What the Tedescos appear to have done, in their effort to bring a maximalist approach to the sensors directed at these suspected alien spacecraft, is independently engineer the kind of aerial surveillance capability rarely seen outside the classified world. Read the full story.
—Matthew Phelan
This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about security. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
Open the pod bay doors, Claude
The trope of AI going rogue, disobeying commands and threatening its human operators is well-worn in Sci-Fi. But it’s no longer just the stuff of fiction. AI doomerism, the idea that this technology—specifically its hypothetical upgrades, artificial general intelligence and super-intelligence—will crash civilizations, even kill us all, is now riding another wave.
The weird thing is that such fears are now driving much-needed action to regulate AI—even if the justification for that action is a bit bonkers. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.
#Download #Americas #drone #brothers #upside #doomerism
If you look up at the sky in Texas and see what could be a flying burrito, you may not be imagining things: Chipotle on Thursday launched an autonomous aerial delivery service for digital orders in the Dallas area.
Through a partnership with Zipline, a drone delivery and logistics provider, Chipotle is introducing Zipotle, new delivery service for its customers. With Zipotle, small aircrafts called Zips can deliver digital orders directly to customers’ homes in just a few minutes, Chipotle said in an announcement on Thursday.
Initially, just “a small number” of customers will be able to experience Zipotle, according to Chipotle, which said that it would expand the service in the coming weeks.
The burrito chain is touting Zipotle as a superior delivery service that helps customers get their food faster, so that it stays fresh. Everything on Chipotle’s menu is available for drone delivery in the Dallas area, the company added. Orders for Zipotle delivery need to be placed through the Zipline app, available through the Apple and Android app stores.
Here’s how it works
Once a customer places an order, a Chipotle worker then packs it and places it at a Zipping Point where a Zip drone picks up the order and delivers it to the customer. When the autonomous aircraft arrives at a customer’s home, it hovers about 300 feet in the air while lowering and “gently” placing the order on the ground, the company states.
Chipotle said the first location to offer Zipotle delivery is at 3109 Lakeview Pkwy, in Rowlett, a suburb in the eastern part of Dallas.
“Zipotle is a quick and convenient source of delivery that lets guests enjoy our real food from places that are traditionally challenging to serve, including backyards and public parks,” Curt Garner, president and chief strategy and technology officer at Chipotle said in the announcement.
“With Zipline, you tap a button, and minutes later food magically appears — hot, fresh, and ultra-fast,” Zipline CEO and co-founder Rinaudo Cliffton said in the same announcement. “What once felt like science fiction is soon going to become totally normal,” he added.
For now, each autonomous aircraft can carry orders of up to 5.5 pounds in weight. That will increase eventually to 8 pounds, Chipotle said.
Last year, Chipotle was criticized by some customers who alleged certain restaurants were skimping on portions. The company initially denied the claims, before then CEO Brian Niccol acknowledged that about 10% of Chipotle’s 3,500 locations had indeed been underserving customers.
#Chipotle #Zipline #drone #delivery #fly #orders #customers