Uber Eats will test food drone delivery in San Diego Summer 2019

As the second day of the Uber Elevate summit kicked off in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, the transportation company unveiled an important update about the future of your burgers and fries.

Uber Eats will begin testing food drone delivery in San Diego, CA this summer. The first food partner for the test is McDonald’s, but the program will expand to include more options later in the year.

The test can get underway because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) selected the city of San Diego to participate in a commercial drone test program in 2018, and San Diego has decided to partner with Uber.

Uber isn’t alone in pursuing drone delivery. Just last week, Amazon announced that it would begin making drone deliveries within “months.” Google has also received FAA approval to test drone delivery in Virginia. 

The Uber Eats drone announcement is just one of the updates out of Uber’s “Elevate” arm, which is dedicated to pursuing Uber’s aerial travel business. Tuesday, it announced that Melbourne would join Los Angeles and Dallas as a test city for unmanned aerial taxis. 

Uber Eats drone delivery won’t materialize as the futuristic door-to-door service you might imagine. Instead, drones will fly to designated pick up areas, where drivers will complete the last leg of the journey. Eventually, drones could land on the roofs of parked delivery cars, guided by QR code. Uber says that combining drones with vehicles will cut down on delivery time.

That’s one step closer to the dream of robots delivering fries directly into your mouth while your butt remains firmly on your couch. Hallelujah.