Firm says drones can speed up deliveries and increase the number of culinary choices available to customers.
Uber is looking to the skies for the future of its food delivery service, carrying out a test using drones to speed up the delivery of McDonald’s meals.
The company’s Uber Eats platform is working with the fast food restaurant in San Diego to see how drones could be used to improve deliveries in high-density urban areas, after it was granted permission by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to quick start tests.
Uber says that the project will not only decrease delivery times, but also expand the number of culinary choices available to customers.
The plan is to still include hand deliveries by an Uber Eats driver, who will meet the drone at a drop-off location and bring it to the customer’s door.
In the future, drones could be instructed to land atop of a parked vehicle located near each delivery location through QR code correspondence, the firm said.
“We’ve been working closely with the FAA to ensure that we’re meeting requirements and prioritising safety,” said Luke Fischer, head of flight operations at Uber Elevate, the company’s division focused on revolutionising operations in the skies.
“From there, our goal is to expand Uber Eats drone delivery so we can provide more options to more people at the tap of a button.
“We believe that Uber is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge as we’re able to leverage the Uber Eats network of restaurant partners and delivery partners as well as the aviation experience and technology of Uber Elevate.”
Additional restaurant partners will be added to the trial later this year, including local restaurant Juniper and Ivy.
The development comes after Uber announced that Melbourne would be its third city for testing helicopter-like flying taxis, which are due to set off with trials as soon as next year.
Uber Air plans to take passengers to the sky in a bid to ease congested roads on the ground, for the same price as an UberX trip over the same distance.
The firm is due to start test flights in 2020, before commencing a commercial operation from 2023.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a barrage of missiles against Ukraine overnight, in attacks that appeared to target the country’s energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Russia said its air defense systems had intercepted more than 60 Ukrainian drones over the southern Krasnodar region.
Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Russia had launched 34 missiles against Ukraine overnight, of which 21 had been shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
In a post on Telegram, Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko said energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk in the south of the country and Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv in the west had been attacked and that an engineer was injured.
Private energy operator DTEK said four of its thermal power plants were damaged and that there were “casualties,” without going into detail.
Earlier this month Russia destroyed one of Ukraine’s largest power plants and damaged others in a massive missile and drone attack as it renewed its push to target Ukraine’s energy facilities.
Ukraine has appealed to its Western allies for more air defense systems to ward off such attacks. At a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the U.S. will provide Ukraine with additional munitions and gear for its air defense launchers.
Further east, a psychiatric hospital was damaged and one person was wounded after Russia launched a missile attack overnight on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. Photos from the scene showed a huge crater on the grounds of the facility and patients taking shelter in corridors. Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said a 53-year-old woman was hurt.
Also in the Kharkiv region, a man was killed in an overnight attack on the city of Vovchansk, according to Ukraine's State Service for Emegency Situations.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said Russian air defense systems had intercepted 66 drones over the country’s southern Krasnodar region. Two more drones were shot down over the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
The governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, said that Ukrainian forces targeted an oil refinery and infrastructure facilities but that there were no casualties or serious damage. The regional department of the Emergency Situations Ministry reported that a fire broke out at the Slavyansk oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban during the attack.
Ukrainian officials normally decline to comment on attacks on Russian soil, but the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said Saturday that two oil refineries in the Krasnodar region had been hit by drones.
Five people were wounded in a drone attack in a border village in Russia's Belgorod region, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
