Alphabet
Pretty awesome tech reporting here from Matt Novak at Gizmodo. According to Novak, Chipotle is working with Google’s drone division, Project Wing, to test delivering burritos around Blacksburg, Virginia, home of Virginia Tech University. A couple important details before you try tapping your phone for a burrito bowl delivered through the sky: You have to order through a kiosk on campus and the food itself comes from a Chipotle truck nearby. Via Gizmodo:
Alphabet’s Project Wing, a branch of the behemoth tech company formerly known as Google, announced the tests today, which will include autonomous drones being monitored by human operators. But the drones won’t take off from Chipotle stores with orders. Instead, test participants will order from a special kiosk on campus, prompting the drones to take off from Chipotle food trucks and ultimately lower the packages to the ground.
“Project Wing will be working with the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP) to conduct this test,” Project Wing spokesperson Jacquelyn Miller told me in a statement over email. “MAAP runs an FAA test site at Virginia Tech, which is operated for the purpose of gathering research data to shape regulations and operational procedures for future applications of UAS (unmanned aerial systems) and eventually helping them integrate safely into the national airspace.”
Go read the full report over at Gizmodo. This sounds like every stoners’ futuristic dream, so let’s hope it becomes a nation-wide reality some day soon.