Drones and Robots are Becoming Common Food Deliverers - DTNS 5333

**Tom Merritt** (0:08)
This is the Daily Tech News for Monday, August 17th, 2026 We tell you what you need to know, give you some important context and help each other understand.

**Robb Dunewood** (0:17)
Today, Dr. Niki follows up on the combo of AI and dogs to fight cancer and drones and robots expand your food delivery options.

**Tom Merritt** (0:25)
AI dogs and robots, what's not to love? I'm Tom Merritt.

**Robb Dunewood** (0:28)
And I'm Rob Dunewood.

**Tom Merritt** (0:29)
Let's start with what you need to know with that big story.
So yeah, Uber is partnering with Zipline. You may recall, long time listeners of DTNS may recall that Zipline kind of made its name delivering medical supplies in Rwanda. They have operations throughout the world now, including in the United States. So Uber is going to partner with Zipline to begin drone delivery of meals for Uber Eats this year. If you were worried that Zipline was going to do drone delivery of people, it's Uber Eats. It's Uber Eats going to be delivering food. The partnership will start in Zipline's existing US markets. That includes Pea Ridge, Arkansas and Dallas, Fort Worth later this year before expanding to a few dozen more cities. Zipline currently delivers for Walmart. That's probably why Pea Ridge, Arkansas is on there. And also for Chipotle in the US. So they're adding Uber Eats to the roster. Uber says it hopes deliveries should be able to be completed in five to 10 minutes. I assume that's five to 10 minutes from the time the meal is completed.
But still, much faster than the 15 minutes maybe the driver would take to get there. Uber says it has a goal of reaching one million drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029 Much more ambitious than what we've seen with others. Uber has also previously partnered with Flytrex, still has a partnership with Flytrex. Flytrex also working with Walmart. So Walmart on the forefront of this. DoorDash and Wing recently partnered and expanded their delivery service to include the Atlanta metro area. And meanwhile, on the ground, former Uber company, Serve Robotics has signed up GrubHub to use its sidewalk robots to deliver food in Alexandria, Virginia, Chicago and Los Angeles. Serve Robotics already delivers for Uber Eats as well as DoorDash.
Robb, we are getting to the point where these are in the thousands, and Uber wants to make it millions a day, adding a few more delivery areas here and there. I see these robots around Los Angeles. How about you?

**Robb Dunewood** (2:32)
So, where I'm at in the Midwest, we don't see them that regularly, but when I visited large cities that have them, I'm kind of like, oh, that's why these will work. These areas that are very, very densely populated, particularly for the robots that are on ground that are delivering stuff, I can see it because it's like somebody's got to walk or ride a bike to do the delivery. A robot could just as effectively do that, maybe in some cases more effectively do it. So, I think that this is just going to be the way of the future and then we'll go back to the drones actually flying through the air to deliver you stuff.
The last, it's not even really the last miles, like that last 1500 feet, that last 2500 feet or however far they've got to go from their base station is where all the time takes with delivery models. I remember being at a swim party in a very, very large complex and there's just multiple UPS trucks, multiple Amazon delivery trucks. There's just multiple trucks just driving through the neighborhood for literally hours at a time. It's just because they got to, this was on this truck, that was on that truck. But if they could have that stuff all delivered individually via a ground-based robot or a drone, it would save them a lot of time, a lot of manpower as far as these things, being done by things that are not manpower, they're powered by batteries and they fly through the air or roll on the ground.

**Tom Merritt** (3:53)
Yeah, this is a low-margin business because it only works if it reduces the cost for the clients, but it is reducing the cost of these deliveries. It's speeding them up. Uber eats saying it wants to do five to 10 minutes from the time that pizza's cooked or that burrito's made.
And they're complimentary. I actually didn't think about this till you were talking right now. Yeah, you see the sidewalk robots in denser areas. In fact, I don't even have them yet in my area of Los Angeles. They're more in the more dense parts of Los Angeles. But the tag on the drones has been, well, these only work in the more open areas, in like rural areas where you need to fly farther than a sidewalk robot could materially speed up and make a delivery. So I think if you got drones on the edges, you know, you're suburban in rural areas and you got sidewalk robots in the dense city centers, suddenly you've got some decent coverage going on.