Dive Brief:
- Uber has invested in and partnered with Flytrex to launch drone delivery through Uber Eats, the company said Thursday in an emailed press release. This marks both its first investment and partnership with a drone delivery provider. The scale of the investment in Flytrex was not disclosed.
- Uber Eats will begin piloting drone delivery in various markets in the U.S. by the end of the year.
- The partnership with Flytrex is part of Uber’s strategy to create a multimodal delivery network that extends beyond cars, bikes and couriers to include sidewalk robots and drones.
Dive Insight:
Uber’s investment in Flytrex will also help Flytrex accelerate development and deployment of drone delivery.
Flytrex has completed over 200,000 meal deliveries over the past three years, Noam Bardin, Flytrex’s executive chairman, said in a statement. It currently operates in a limited number of markets in the U.S., including parts of North Carolina and Texas. The company has been expanding its partnerships with aggregators like DoorDash.
“Partnering with Uber—pioneers of ground-based mobility—brings together proven logistics expertise with aerial innovation,” Bardin said. “Together, we’re building the infrastructure for a future where autonomous systems seamlessly move goods through our communities, making faster, safer, and more sustainable delivery the new standard.”
For Uber Eats, which once tested drone delivery in 2019, the partnership will allow it to add drone delivery to its platform at scale for the first time, Sarfraz Maredia, president of autonomous mobility and delivery at Uber, said in a statement. Uber Eats has been exploring autonomous delivery through bots and cars. It recently partnered with Serve Robotics to offer delivery in Atlanta using bots, and also works with Cartken and Coco. Uber Eats has teamed up with Nuro, Avride and Waymo for autonomous car delivery.
