Dominos tested delivering pizza by drone [video]

[recuter]

This seems like a marketing stunt more than anything.

Drones would be cost effective if they were at least somehow semi-automated, otherwise there is an endless supply of teenagers and people willing to use scooters to do this at minimum wage. Drone pilots/operators are presumably more skilled and would have higher hourly wages.

It seems like 'self piloting drones' > 'self driving cars' in complexity. So we aren't quite there yet.

I would also imagine that once it becomes even remotely technologically viable it will be snuffed out by legislation. But perhaps one day.. :)

[Zarathust]

I'm really not that sure that drones like the one in the video are more complicated than self driving cars. Self driving cars have to handle a lot of external stimulus, like other cars, road regulations and thrust/steering balances on the road. This helicopter is quite free to move and can be "easily" tracked by gps or such. Only the remote landing can be tricky depending on the situation.

[yogo]

I could see this being semi-automated to the point where the drones can travel between the home base (there can be special devices to assist the drone with automatically landing that you wouldn't have on a home or business) and some radius near the drop location by themselves then you have some human assistance with the final 100 feet or so. This would make it possible to need only 1 operator for a small city, I think. He'll only need to be concerned with landings/near-ground hovering then getting back in the air for the trip back home or to another drop.

I'm sure there will be some kind of regulation/standard that will deal with the way drones avoid other drones (and other tall structures) while in the air.

[cheald]

Given how good your average teenage layabout is at video games, I'm not sure that making the leap to drones would be all that hard!

That's mostly tongue-in-cheek, but not entirely - the sorts of spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination skills that kids develop playing video games directly translate to fly-by-wire systems.

(The downside, of course, is that teenagers are easily bored and easily amused, and may be prone to wrecking expensive company drones doing barrel rolls and buzzing their friends.)

[jryce]

If I was homeless in that area I'd start hunting pizza drones for food. I also thought they were automating it instead.

[dsl]

The "drone" itself is a DJI S800 and not autonomous in any way. It is technically a Remotely Operated Aircraft (ROA), so a fancy RC helicopter.

It looks like this was filmed in the UK (from the .co.uk address on the side of the box). Had it been filmed in the US, they could run into serious legal problems for not having a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the FAA for commercial operation.

[tantalor]

Generally "drone" refers to "unmanned aerial vehicle" (UAV), not necessarily autonomous.

[scheff]

I would have thought that the obvious advantage of this over scooter-kid is the time saving over someone in traffic. It would take potentially half the time to deliver to some areas by air. With the major side benefit that your pizza is less soggy when it arrives, which means a noticeable improvement in product quality.

[backwardm]

It's a cool idea. I'm sure some would be tempted to capture and steal the drones as they made delivery—they can't be cheap. It will become the modern day equivalent of stealing a plastic milk cart—only you won't be building ugly book shelves with the drones. :)

[frou_dh]

It'd be cooler if someone launched their own drone with a grabbing arm and swiped the pizza mid-air.

[alwaysdoit]

It's not foolproof, but it does have a camera attached to it and presumably a tracking device.

[bernatfp]

Who cares if it is a commercial. People need to realize drones can be used for other stuff than military. Maybe this ad will serve as a good tool to democratize drones as that "Pizza for Bitcoin" website did for Bitcoin, even if it's just a small step.

[Giszmo]

I am 100% sure that automatically landing a pizza in your front yard will be technically feasible long before the theft rate of these neat gadgets would drop to an acceptable rate. Maybe the first copters will parachute the pizzas :)

[Ilmesnkie_Jones]

How is the drone going to open the door of my apartment building and bring the pizza upstairs (the most important part of the delivery)?

[wklauss]

Do you have a window? Problem solved.

[tzs]

It could deliver to a window.

[jlgreco]

I'm still holding out hope for Tacocopter.

[imjared]

Will the burrito bomber suffice? http://www.darwinaerospace.com/burritobomber

[brd]

I thought drones were banned from commercial use?

[heurist]

If this were an actual service how would they handle people interfering with the drone en route or during the delivery?

[escaped_hn]

The same way you prevent people from interfering with pizza delivery people's cars. Legal repercussions.

[zimpenfish]

Not to me - my local Dominos has mysteriously stopped taking online orders "for the time being".

[theschnabler]

if i had any money, i'm quite sure i'd consider investing into something drone related (commercial). almost positive these things will become a huge part of our everyday life/society in the future. (hopefully for the better)

[coryl]

Looks to be more of a viral video ad, but still pretty cool.

[reductive]

This is a commercial.

[getglue]

Digg is still alive?

[phyalow]

I tried to sign in with my account from circa 2005 - it doesn't work. So Digg remains dead to me.

[_jmar777]

Woah... digg.

[EGreg]

Is this for real?

[jka]

To put my slightly cynical hat on (one of my favourite hats) - the viral marketing video space is a popular one at the moment, since everyone knows how quickly video content can spread - especially when it's entertaining and/or novel, and marketers would love to reach those kind of audience sizes with their brands.

There are also a great number of video producers out there - often relatively young folks who keep in tune with what's popular online, stay current on technology trends, and would love to earn their income by creating and selling videos which advertise brands (Dominos) and products.

So, these folks - their raison d'être is to produce videos which promote a brand and spread virally - and to achieve that, they need to 'feel' unique, but the catch is that they generally need to display the branding quite prominently in the content.

Here's a similar situation: http://www.livescience.com/23150-seagull-video-hoax.html

To me, I'd suspect both are viral marketing, if well disguised - and even if they're not, I'd suspect that viral video marketers are going to become more sophisticated at making videos 'appear' to be genuine / user-generated / found footage.

One question that springs to mind with this one is: if Dominos were beta-testing this, would they have the operator wear the Dominos delivery uniform?

Either way, they're fun to watch.

[trotsky]

so do they get paid to run ads like that, or are they just stooges the same as reddit?

[yoster]

I can imagine some idiot running right into the propellers on that drone. I can also see the million dollar settlement next.