In brief: Uber Eats hasn't given up on its drone deliveries experiment. Uber Technologies is partnering with drone company Flytrex, one of Walmart's partners for its drone delivery service, and plans to start deliveries in US pilot markets by the end of the year.
The companies said that Uber wants to expand its multimodal delivery network to include autonomous aerial deliveries. Tel Aviv, Israel-based Flytrex, which also carries out drone deliveries for DoorDash, is one of only four drone delivery providers authorized by the FAA for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations, meaning pilots are allowed to control the drones without being able to see them.
Flytrex has completed over 200,000 drone deliveries across the US. The companies said the partnership will allow Uber Eats customers to receive their orders within minutes and will help ease road congestion and emissions while lowering costs.
"Autonomous technology is transforming mobility and delivery faster than ever before," said Sarfraz Maredia, the President of Autonomous Mobility and Delivery at Uber. "With Flytrex, we're entering the next chapter – bringing the speed and sustainability of drone delivery to the Uber Eats platform, at scale, for the first time."
If the pilot program meets expectations, it's expected that Uber Eats will expand the drone program to other areas of the US.
This isn't Uber's first experiment with drones. The Uber Elevate initiative to launch an aerial ridesharing service expanded to include food delivery by drones through Uber Eats in 2019. Those drones weren't designed to land at customer homes. Instead, they would fly to designated drop-off zones or delivery drivers' cars, land on specially designed vehicles equipped with QR codes and landing pads, then the last leg to the customer was handled by human couriers.
A few test deliveries were made in partnership with McDonald's in 2020, but Uber wound down the experiment. Uber sold Elevate to Joby Aviation in 2020 – the drone delivery side didn't transfer – ending its flying taxi ambitions.
Drone deliveries are becoming increasingly common in the US. In addition to Flytrex, Alphabet drone arm Wing also partners with Walmart and DoorDash to deliver takeout food and groceries. Zipline, meanwhile, is a South San Francisco drone company mostly known for medical supply delivery, but it also works with Walmart and Panera Bread.