back to article Pizza delivery by drone 'trialled' in New Zealand

Multinational pizza megacorp Domino's claims it is trialling pizza delivery drones in New Zealand. In partnership with quadcopter delivery business Flirtey, Domino's demonstrated the service in Auckland today, in complete compliance with New Zealand's civil aviation regulation. The publicity stunt managed to attract the …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'd like to order a bug pizza

    You want 'bugs' on your pizza?

    No bro, I want a bug one!

  3. DrXym

    Doesn't seem very useful

    How many customers are going to live somewhere in range where its safe to land a drone and how often are weather conditions suitable to fly it? A pizza in a box could easily catch a gust of wind and crash a drone. And of course there are hazards like wires, pylons, trees, rain, fog, buildings, night etc.

    And I bet animals like seagulls would soon get the knack of attacking drones if there was a delicious pizza hanging underneath it. And people griefing the drone / vandalizing it because it's human nature to do it.

    Until someone figures out how to solve these issues I don't see this anything more than a lame PR exercise.

    1. DeeCee

      Re: Doesn't seem very useful

      adding miniguns(or lazers when technology advances, or lazer miniguns) to drones would solve all problems

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Doesn't seem very useful

        What's a lazer?

        1. Geoff May (no relation)

          Re: What's a lazer?

          Legumes,

          Artichokes,

          Zanetti and

          Extra

          Roquito

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Doesn't seem very useful

          The word lazer comes from the acronym:

          Light

          Amplification by the

          Ztimulated

          Emission of

          Radiation

          obvs.

        3. AndrueC Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: Doesn't seem very useful

          What's a lazer?

          A ray gun that doesn't try very hard?

        4. gzuckier

          Re: Doesn't seem very useful

          Lazer may refer to:

          Lazer, Hautes-Alpes, France

          Lazer, a brand of Turkish chewing gum

          Panther Lazer, a car

          Lazer 103, a Wisconsin radio station

          Lazer 99.3, a Massachusetts radio station

          Lazer Team, a 2015 feature film by Rooster Teeth Productions

          Major Lazer

        5. DrXym

          Re: Doesn't seem very useful

          TJ Lazer, the show within Robocop.

  4. Steve K

    Line of sight?

    How do you maintain line of sight to the drone if you are landing in (say) someone's garden behind a fence?

    Line of sight (if not by use of FPV displays) would be handy if the pizza shop (or delivery vehicle) is just on the other side of a narrow river, without a nearby bridge but otherwise this seems like a gimmick.

    You need to be fairly close by when landing/taking off these things to avoid obstacles - particularly non-static ones....

    1. Ralph B

      Re: Line of sight?

      At least the regulations don't require someone to run (or fly) in front of the drone with a red flag.

  5. Joe Werner Silver badge
    WTF?

    Stooopeed!

    "the drones need to be kept within line-of-sight at all times"

    So the operator / operatress(?) walks along with the drone, which means that instead of the pizza (not that the stuff D's sell is related to that) being delivered by a motorscooter it will arrive at walking speed.

    Alternative plans: https://what-if.xkcd.com/149/

    1. lawndart

      Re: Stooopeed!

      What you have is two drones. Each with two cameras. One camera for looking where it is going and the other watches the other drone to maintain line of sight at all times.

    2. Captain DaFt

      Re: Stooopeed!

      Alternative alternative plan, satellite delivered pizza!

      (Please step outside before ordering)

    3. Duffy Moon

      Re: Stooopeed!

      The drone operator could be a passenger in a helicopter following behind the drone.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I object!

    Dominoe's is to pizza what sun baked bloated road kill is to fine French cuisine...

    Oh wait.

    Fuck. Nevermind...

  7. Marvin the Martian

    I accidentally mixed up this "pizza delivery by drones" article with the "eagles against drones" one, which inevitably leads to this calculation for "pizza delivery by eagles", http://what-if.xkcd.com/149/ .

    Somewhat unrelatedly, our local curryhouse has been unsuccessfully trialling "delivery by crone" instead, meaning cold food and random substitutions plus bewildering conversations.

    1. Sgt_Oddball

      Gotta love our left pondian friends....a normal 20" pizza..as opposed to enough to feed a family of 4....for a week......

    2. gzuckier

      "Somewhat unrelatedly, our local curryhouse has been unsuccessfully trialling "delivery by crone" instead, meaning cold food and random substitutions plus bewildering conversations."

      Ah yes, "Home style food, just like Mom makes"

      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Don't play with your food! Sit up straight and eat up!

  8. Baldy50

    But...

    Aren’t they normally transported in a thermal box or bag so it's still hot when you get it?

    It'd just go cold really quickly, air at speed will do that!

  9. Winkypop Silver badge
    Facepalm

    If you live in line of sight of the pizza shop

    Get off the couch and walk dude!

  10. Paul Renault

    'Trialled'?

    Are reporters paid by the letter nowadays? Was the word 'tested' too short?

    1. Unep Eurobats
      Headmaster

      Re: 'Trialled'?

      I was more concerned by the use of 'almost uniquely'.

  11. Unep Eurobats
    Facepalm

    Hope I get my deep-pan pepperoni

    and not a consignment of prison drugs by accident.

  12. Ru'

    "Latest Company Resorts to Drone Story to Advertise Products"

    Move along, nothing to see... (pie in the sky?)

    1. Youngone

      "Latest Company Resorts to Drone Story to Advertise Products"

      Which is exactly what this is. Most of Auckland is a no-fly zone for drones anyway, and Simon Bridges is the worst kind of clueless party hack who will attend the opening of an envelope if he thinks it will get him on the TV news. (Which this story did).

  13. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

    I've never understood why people will pay Dominoes prices.

    I think they adopt the "Sofa" marketing philosophy of permanent half price offer. Even then its extortionate.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They only did it 'cause of fame. Who? M.F.I.

      To paraphrase an old DFS/MFI joke, is the definition of "unlucky" someone who pays full price for a Domino's pizza the one day a year they didn't have a sale on?

      Or is that just stupidity? ;-)

  14. OzBob

    It will last 3 weeks, a month maximum

    the street kids and bogans (read: chavs down under) will knock them out of the sky for fun and / or sell them round the back of the pub. it will become prohibitively expensive experiment that will make people realise: humans have not yet collectively grown up enough to deal with this sort of technology yet.

  15. GrumpyKiwi

    Line of sight

    Slap an 10m tall antennae on top of Mt Eden. That would give line of sight of about 50km - more than enough to cover Auckland from Whangaparoa to Papakura. (Except for those annoying bits where hills and buildings get in the way).

    1. R Callan

      Re: Line of sight

      That would be most of Auckland then, right?

      1. GrumpyKiwi

        Re: Line of sight

        All the bits worth visiting at any rate...

  16. Jonski
    Black Helicopters

    30m from houses

    Bugger that for a game of soldiers- having to walk 30m to get a pizza when everyone else delivers it to your door.

    I mean, the only reason one gets delivery pizza is because of laziness*, amiright? It's not for the taste, price or nutritional content that's for sure.

    * OK, alright I'll allow drunkenness as well

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