[VIDEO] They Are Using Drones To Deliver Pizzas In India Now
Amazon’s plans to deliver packages via drones might just be a concept but a pizza chain in Bombay, India has already started testing drones for delivering pizzas!
By Sadho Ram — 23 May 2014, 09:45 AM — Updated over 10 years ago
Bombay, notorious for its traffic snarls, has achieved a first in India after Francesco’s Pizzeria delivered a pizza using an unmanned drone
The unmanned drone successfully delivered a pizza to a customer 1.5km away.
A four-rotor drone took off with the order from its outlet in central Bombay's Lower Parel area and delivered it to a high-rise building in adjacent Worli area
Francesco's Pizzeria chief executive Mikhel Rajani said:
"All of us had read about (global e-commerce giant) Amazon's plans of using drones. We successfully carried out a test-delivery by sending a pizza to a customer located 1.5 km away from our outlet on May 11."
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He stressed that this was only a test-flight but its results confirm that it can be used routinely in a few years
Considering that Indian regulations have their restrictions on the use of drone for commercial purpose for now and prohibits the use of a drone above an altitude of 400 feet, the pizza chain claims that they have not used it on commercial front, though are running trial tests and will use it for delivery purposes in some years.
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The eating joint has made this drone with the help of an auto engineer friend of the CEO
The eatery, which has been in operations for two years, has made a video of the delivery, he said, adding an auto engineer friend helped with making the flight possible.
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If made commercial, the drone service will not only save time but will also cut down the costs for a company
Rajani, who comes from a family that is into textiles, said the drone saves time and costs for a company like his, which would otherwise depend on a two-wheeler borne agent to deliver the pizzas. "What we have done now will be common place in the next four-five years," he said, adding every such customised drone costs around $2,000.
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Meanwhile, the pizza outlet has come under scanner of local police, which is seeking an explanation on use of drone for pizza delivery without informing them
The usage of unmanned drone for the first time in India by a city-based pizza shop for delivery has come under scanner of Mumbai police, which will seek an explanation from the outlet as to why it did not inform them before carrying out the experiment.
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Police will also ask Air Traffic Controller (ATC) whether Francesco’s Pizzeria outlet had a correspondence with them. When contacted, an ATC official said he did not know whether the outlet had sought permission from them. The official, however, categorically stated, “As per norms, permission must be taken for flying any such object.”
financialexpress.com“We are very sensitive towards anything that flies in the sky with the help of remote control. We will certainly ask the outlet’s administration as to why it did not inform us before carrying out this experiment. We also seek full details pertaining to the drone test,” Madhukar Pandey, additional police commissioner (Central Region) in whose jurisdiction the drone was flown, told PTI.
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“We will also ask the ATC if it was consulted by the outlet. After studying all the aspects, we will decide the future course of action,” Pandey said. According to sources, terror threat has been lingering over the city and inputs available with police suggest that terror organisations might strike using paragliding and unmanned drones.
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