Uber partners with Zipline for drone deliveries via Uber Eats

Uber has announced a strategic partnership and investment in Zipline to integrate autonomous drone deliveries into the Uber Eats platform. The collaboration aims to achieve one million drone deliveries per day in the United States by the end of 2029.

Initial deployments are expected to begin by the end of this year, starting in Zipline’s existing markets such as Dallas and Houston, before expanding to dozens of U.S. cities. The service intends to provide customers with food and small package deliveries within five to ten minutes.

This move aligns with Uber’s broader strategy of building a hybrid delivery network that includes human couriers, sidewalk robots, and drones. Rather than developing proprietary hardware, Uber has focused on investing in and partnering with external autonomous technology providers, having committed over $10 billion to various autonomous vehicle suppliers to date.