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Zomato Says It’s Ready To Deliver Food By Drone

Zomato successfully tested its maiden drone delivery technology.



A drone carrying a bag of powder flies during a simulated test. (Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg)
A drone carrying a bag of powder flies during a simulated test. (Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg)

Online food ordering and delivery startup Zomato said it successfully tested its maiden drone delivery technology.

The hybrid drone covered 5 kilometres at a peak speed of 80 km per hour, the company said in a blog on Wednesday. It delivered a payload of 5 Kg in about 10 minutes.

In December, Zomato had acquired TechEagle Innovations for an undisclosed amount as the restaurant search and ordering services provider was exploring food delivery using drones.

Using drones for delivery would be a big game changer for metros as the idea is to scrape unnecessary traffic off the roads and direct it skyward, Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato, said in the blog.

The automated lightweight drone, being tested with remote supervision, takes off vertically and then transits to an airplane, he said. “Over time, as we have more data, we might not need remote pilot supervision.”

With this, Zomato joins the likes of cab aggregator Uber, which is also testing food delivery using drones through its entity Uber Elevate in the U.S.

How Will It Work

The drones will pick up the package from a centralised hub of restaurant that will work as a dispatch centre and drop it at a customer hub—a landing station that will be close to dense communities. It will then come back to the dispatch site, Zomato said.

Meanwhile, Zomato is forming a consortium that will include a team of expert agencies and service providers as per the Director General of Civil Aviation’s guidelines to carry out experimental drone operations.

The DGCA had asked organisations to submit an expression of interest for experimental use of drones that travel beyond visual line of sight, according to its notification dated May 13.

“Food delivery by drones is no longer just a pipe dream. It’s almost here,” Goyal said.