Imagine ordering a pizza and finding a drone or a flying robot with your order at the doorstep instead of your neighbourhood delivery boy.
This could well be the future with Amazon head Jeff Bezos’ plans of delivering the company’s products through drones in the US by 2018, giving further wings to entrepreneurial dreams of Indian drone-makers.
These companies are exploring tie-ups with players in food delivery, healthcare, e-commerce and logistics space in India to start demos and pilot projects involving deliveries of light weight packets for short distances.
Rajesh Mane of Airpix, a drone company, said, “We are currently engaged in doing demos along with one month of pilot study for few players in the food and healthcare segment. Going ahead we expect further interest from e-commerce and logistics players. At present, only a handful of companies are into creating drones which are mostly being used for defence purposes and aerial photography purposes by the ad and film industry.”
“Though we have been working on developing drones for the past year, the recent announcement by Amazon has provided the proof of concept for many sceptics such as potential investors and our own families,” he added. Ankit Mehta of Mumbai-based Ideaforge provided drones for flood relief in Uttarakhand this year. His company engages with defence forces for using drones that can carry a weight of up to 200 grams in a 5-10 km radius for up to an hour.
However, both Mehta and Mane believe that a practical application of drone technology will take 3 years.
Challenges include limitations on the drones range and weight load, security regulations on airspace use, high cost (which could range from $300 to $3,00,000), drone technology and infrastructure, existing operational and supply chain challenges of retailers in their business models.
While KFC, Flipkart, Dominos and McDonalds declined to comment on the potential they see for this new ‘delivery channel’, e-commerce evangelist eBay India Deepa Thomas said, “We don’t think drone deliveries would be widespread and feasible industry standard in India in the near future. But announcements like these serve to bring focus to e-commerce and the ecosystem around it and hopefully intrigue more customers and merchants to look at it.”
Amazon isn't the first company to experiment delivery by drones. Over the last year, several companies abroad have carried out similar services testing carrying tacos, sushi, pizzas and packages by multi-rotor crafts.
The list includes UK franchise of the US-based Domino's pilot of a drone called ‘domicopter’ which carried two pizzas in July and China-based SF Express which started limited live trials of package deliveries earlier this year.