Last week, a four-rotor unmanned drone took off from a pizza outlet in the populated Lower Parel area of Mumbai, as part of a test mission to deliver pizza to Worli, which it successfully accomplished.
While the success is commendable, such a service would still take a few more years to become a reality, especially in India. The drone pizza delivery by the outlet Francesco's Pizzeria, certainly hints that such a technology can become a reality in India, where traffic congestion hinders timely delivery.
A video of the drone delivering the order has also been posted on YouTube, which shows the four-rotor drone making its way through several crowded streets and corners from central Mumbai's Lower Parel area to a high-rise building in adjacent Worli area. The 1.22 minute video has a tagline – "Can pizza be delivered by a robot? #Dronedeliverspizza."
In a press release, Francesco's Pizzeria claimed that the four-rotor unmanned drone delivering pizza is a first in the country. "This is for the first time that the ubiquitous drone has been used for such a purpose in the country," it stated.
However, this is not the first time in the world that the idea of drone delivery has been experimented with. Last year, Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos made headlines world-over, after he announced that his company would offer 30-minute deliveries with the help of drones.
The Mumbai-based pizza outlet has evidently been inspired by the Amazon head's vision for the future, but there are many in India, who have raised doubts on the practicability of such a service in India.
The outlet has also accepted that delivering pizzas through drones could be too expensive at this point. "A customized drone for such type of delivery can cost around $2,000 presently," the company explained.
Meanwhile, YouTube users appear to be excited about the possibility. "I would love to have my pizza delivered by a drone. That being said drones are still unsafe, terrorist outfits could misuse them," wrote one, while another added, "In india every body will throw stones, to get the free pizza..."
