A pizza restaurant in Mumbai, India, has successfully tested a drone delivery covering a distance of 3 kilometers in 10 minutes.
Amazon's drone delivery for its retail products might have got worldwide attention, but a restaurant in Mumbai, India, is looking to take a piece of the fame with its own drone delivery. Francesco's Pizzeria, a local pizza chain in Mumbai, successfully tested a drone delivery to get a chicken pizza to one of its customer's pent house in Worli area, which is a 3-kilometer distance from the outlet's Lower Parel location in central Mumbai.
Drone delivery was made popular by Amazon when it first announced the initiative to use the flying gadgets to deliver small-sized packages within United States. The testing performed by a Mumbai eatery is the first in the nation but is far from being standard practice. Other countries testing the new delivery technique include the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
According to Francesco's Pizzeria chief executive Mikhel Rajani, the flying drones to deliver pizzas to customers was developed with the help of Fahad Azad of Robotsoft Systems but they got the inspiration from Amazon. He told PTI that the drone deliveries will take as much as five years before being fully implemented into the system and each drone costs around $2,000.
The current system of delivery through motorcycles is very cost-intensive as it includes fuel costs, bike maintenance and salary for the delivery boys. If drones are used for delivery, it could bring down our operation costs a lot," said a spokesperson of the restaurant, India Today reports.
Drones also attract some serious aviation regulations that limit the use of such technology in most countries. According to a report from NDTV, drones are not allowed to fly above 400 feet and over security establishments. Also, these drones are in their early stages and face technical challenges such as a limited operating radium of 8 kilometers, post which the batteries dry out, Rajani said.
