It's a bird! It's a plane! It's pizza! Drone delivery in Seattle and Tacoma could soon become reality
It might seem like a pie in the sky idea, but that’s because that’s exactly what it is — pizza delivery using flying drones. A plan is cooking up in Seattle to make pizza delivery via drones a reality, and that’s just for starters.
"Obviously, it seems pretty sci-fi and a lot of customers think this is totally insane when they first hear about it,” said Keller Cliffton, cofounder and CEO of Zipline, a delivery drone company. “But what has really struck us is that there are about seven days of sci-fi magical amazement, and then on day eight people are basically bored of it — bored of it in the way that there's no way they're ever going back to the old way of receiving things."
Zipline is based in California. It recently struck a deal with Seattle’s Pagliacci Pizza to begin delivering orders using its drone system. Zipline has battery-powered drones that can fly to a customer’s location. It hovers above the location and lowers the delivery on a tethered droid.
"Anybody can pull out a phone, press a button on that phone, and place an order that can then be delivered autonomously to the home in a way that is 10 times as fast, half the cost, and fully zero emission compared to the way we do instant delivery today," Cliffton said.
Scenes of hot pizzas lowering out the sky onto Seattle porches are contingent on Zipline receiving approval from the FAA for an operations and safety plan. That plan is in the works but not yet submitted to the agency. The FAA may impose restrictions tailored to Seattle’s busy airspace such as on flight altitudes, hours of operation and places to avoid. If all goes well, the company expects to deliver pizzas in 2024.
Pagliacci helped design a new 13-inch pizza box so that Zipline’s drones can carry two pizzas, along with salads, drinks, and other side orders.
“Over a decade ago, we committed to sustainability by taking bold steps to reduce our carbon footprint, including purchasing green power, buying locally, and developing robust composting programs,” Pagliacci co-owner Matt Galvin said in a statement. “As we work toward carbon neutrality, Zipline's drones will enable us to scale our deliveries sustainably with up to 97% fewer emissions than cars.”
The plans don’t end with pizzas. Last year, Zipline announced a separate effort to deliver medical products and lab samples for the MultiCare Health System around Tacoma.
“Making sure our providers have what they need, when they need it, is a critical part of providing affordable and accessible care to patients,” said Florence Chang, president of MultiCare in a statement last year. “We are always looking for like-minded partners who can help us improve the care we provide to the communities we serve in a sustainable and reliable way.”
As with the pizza proposal, the earliest estimates for medical deliveries around Tacoma are sometime in 2024. Zipline has also made delivery deals with supplement retailer GNC in Salt Lake City, and with Associated Couriers in Long Island, New York to deliver medications.
Zipline's plans to offer drone deliveries in Washington state would be an expansion of its drone delivery efforts in the U.S. The company has already been delivering some products for Walmart to customers in the Bentonville, Arkansas area and prescription drugs for some health care providers in parts of North Carolina and Utah. But the Washington state plans would involve newer types of drones, which the company calls Platform 2 Zips.
Amazon has long talked about having a drone delivery option. The company has an ongoing flight testing program for its delivery drones at the airport in Pendleton, Ore. The first drone delivery trials to real customers are happening far from the e-commerce giant’s Pacific Northwest headquarters though -- in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California.
Zipline began operations in 2014 with a delivery of blood supplies in Rwanda. It has primarily focused on medical delivery since then and has amassed a customer base of 3,400 hospitals. By the end of 2023, it expects to have contracts with 10,000 health care customers. The company says it is currently the largest autonomous delivery system on the planet.
This article has been updated.
Reporting from Northwest News Network's Tom Banse contributed to this article.
