Uber Eats will offer Zipline drone delivery to U.S. customers later this year, backing the drone maker's goal of 1 million daily deliveries by 2029.
Uber is adding Zipline's autonomous drones to its U.S. delivery network. Uber Eats customers in the U.S. will have the option of getting orders delivered "in minutes" through Zipline's aircraft starting later this year, Uber said Monday (Aug. 17).
Uber is also investing in Zipline, which plans to reach one million drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029. Zipline operates on four continents and makes a delivery every 20 seconds. Its logistics network serves more than 5,000 hospitals. The company has completed more than 2.7 million deliveries of more than 20 million items, according to Monday's release.
"Now the company is bringing this technology and service to the U.S. to deliver anything people need in 5-10 mins," the release said.
The deal extends Uber's existing delivery network, which already runs couriers and sidewalk robots alongside a drone service. Zipline has built "incredible technology," and Uber connects millions of people with local merchants daily, Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's CEO, said. "Together, we're shaping the future of delivery by creating a faster, more sustainable way for people to get what they need," he said.
Weeks earlier, rival DoorDash said it had received approval to launch its in-house drone delivery program. "We want drone delivery to work for any merchant, anywhere," Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air, said at the time. "We're building the full stack to make that possible from the ground infrastructure to the drone itself, and the handoff systems that make it work together seamlessly."
The two companies are taking different routes. Uber is using Zipline's hardware and logistics network, which already serves hospitals. DoorDash is building its own drones and handoff systems.
PAR Technology CEO Savneet Singh told PYMNTS in an interview earlier this year that the broader shift toward AI-driven commerce could push restaurant ordering away from third-party marketplaces. "In an agent ordering world, you're going to be ordering from your TV, from your car, from your phone," Singh said. "That means the restaurant has the data, understands the customer's preferences, and doesn't pay a toll to another platform."
Uber said the Zipline option will be available to U.S. customers later this year. Uber did not name the cities where it will first appear.
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