Domino’s has announced a partnership with drone delivery company Flirtey, with the aim of transporting pizzas through the air. Domino’s plans to use the automated aircraft to work alongside its current delivery fleets and will be integrated with its online ordering and GPS systems. Domino’s Group CEO and Managing Director Don Meij noted that the company’s growth in recent years has led to increased number of deliveries it needs to make. With this increase, they are faced with the challenge of ensuring their delivery time continue to reduce and offer their customer progressive ways of ordering them.
Domino has yet to receive regulatory approval from New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority, though it noted that they expect to begin trials later this year. According to Meij, these tests will provide the insight they need to extend weight carried by drone and the distance travelled. He also added that they are planning a phased trial approach that is based on the CAA granting approval. A spokesperson from CAA, told Mashable Australia, that they had only approved a one-off delivery service that was used for a commercial that was filmed a few years ago. Under current CAA regulation, drones cannot have a total of more than 25 kilograms and cannot be operated at night; they have to stay in clear sight of the pilot.
Flirtey was behind the first-ever legal drone delivery, which was a drop off of medication in the U.S. Since then they have been behind a number of trial deliveries though commercial drone deliveries remains a large fantasy.
Domino’s and Flirtey conducted demonstrations using their drone pizza delivery service in Auckland, New Zealand on Thursday. The event was attended by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority and its Minister of Transport Simon Bridges. According to Domino’s the demonstration marked a final step in Flirtey’s license approval process.
Domino’s noted that New Zealand was selected as the launch market since its current regulation allows business to make unmanned aircraft opportunities.
Featured Image Credit:nydailynews
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