Google's Project Wing drones will deliver Chipotle burritos at Virginia Tech
Domino's is already launching a drone delivery service in New Zealand, but in the US, the commercial drone delivery industry is still in its trial phase. We've already seen a drone deliver a Slurpee in Nevada. Now, Google's Project Wing will test out delivering Chipotle burritos at Virginia Tech.
The temporary, experimental service will begin this month, Bloomberg reports. With a human pilot standing by to observe, the self-guided, unmanned aircrafts will take food from a Chipotle food truck to volunteer customers and lower it down with a winch.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s initial drone regulations, which went into effect on Aug. 29, don't allow for commercial deliveries, but the burrito delivery tests should help the agency develop those rules, Project Wing leader Dave Vos told Bloomberg. The tests will specifically be used to evaluate the accuracy of navigation systems and how people respond to the devices.
The White House announced last month that it would work with multiple private partners, including Google's Project Wing, to advance the commercial drone industry and that the FAA would let Project Wing conduct research at its test sites. Virginia Tech is part of the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, one of the six groups that hosts the FAA testing sites.