Uber Teams With Zipline to Expand Drone Delivery Service

Uber hopes to expand its U.S. delivery business by teaming with drone company Zipline.

Starting later this year, Uber Eats customers in the U.S. will get the option of having orders delivered “in minutes” through Zipline’s autonomous drone delivery, Uber said in a Monday (Aug. 17) news release.

Uber is also investing in Zipline as the company’s push to reach one million drone deliveries each day by the end of 2029. Zipline operates on four continents, making a delivery every 20 seconds, with a logistics network that serves more than 5,000 hospitals.

“Now the company is bringing this technology and service to the U.S. to deliver anything people need in 5-10 mins,” the release said. “Zipline has made more than 2.7 million deliveries of more than 20 million items, reducing traffic, carbon emissions and saving people time with each delivery.”

The partnership builds on Uber’s existing delivery network, which includes couriers, sidewalk robots and drones.

“Zipline has built incredible technology, and Uber connects many millions of people with local merchants every day,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. “Together, we’re shaping the future of delivery by creating a faster, more sustainable way for people to get what they need. We look forward to bringing this technology to more communities and making autonomous delivery part of everyday life.”

The partnership announcement comes weeks after Uber Eats rival DoorDash announced it had gotten approval to launch its in-house drone delivery program.

“We want drone delivery to work for any merchant, anywhere,” Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air, said in a news release at the time. “We’re building the full stack to make that possible from the ground infrastructure to the drone itself, and the handoff systems that make it work together seamlessly.”

PYMNTS wrote earlier this year about the impact delivery services have had on the restaurant industry, noting that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven commerce and retail solutions could mean an era in which restaurants are not simply passive participants.

“In an agent ordering world, you’re going to be ordering from your TV, from your car, from your phone,” Savneet Singh, CEO of PAR Technology, told PYMNTS in an interview earlier this year, adding that those orders can connect directly to the restaurant rather than moving through third-party marketplaces.

“That means the restaurant has the data, understands the customer’s preferences, and doesn’t pay a toll to another platform,” Singh added.

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