Good news for food lovers in Ipswich, Queensland – you can now get your DoorDash orders delivered by drone.
The service, DoorDash Air, comes via a partnership with DoorDash, drone company Wing and shopping centre giant Mirvac.
The service first launched in Queensland in November, covering households in the suburbs of Berrinba, Browns Plains, Crestmead, Heritage Park, Kingston, Logan Central, Marsden, Regents Park, and Waterford West. But now, Wing has established a hub for drone deliveries at Mirvac’s Orion Springfield Central shopping centre in Ipswich.
The new operations centre makes it possible for local restaurants and retailers using DoorDash’s platform and Wing’s delivery drones to send food and essentials to households in Redbank Plains, Springfield Central, Springfield Lakes, Spring Mountain, Brookwater, Augustine Heights, Camira, Bellbird Park, White Rock, Springfield, Greenbank and Goodna.
It’s a very small group of people that immediately benefit from this severely gimmicky opportunity, but it’s a sign of the future. A future where drones deliver food and…look, it’s super cool.
The Logan launch was a global first for both companies, also the first time Wing had integrated its drone delivery service within another marketplace.
Wing, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, in October also launched a grocery delivery by drone service on the Gold Coast. But residents of the region have also been spoiled with drones flying them KFC and Bánh Mì.
Wing has been operating its drone delivery service in certain parts of Queensland and the ACT since 2019. The convenience of a drone delivering things proved popular, particularly during lockdown/times when people weren’t overly enthused about leaving their homes. Wing has gone as far as calling Logan the drone delivery capital of the world.
Wing has grown massively since its launch in Australia but it’s still not available everywhere. In fact, Wing is only operating in three countries right now — Australia, Finland and the United States.
It’s a pretty rad approach to contactless delivery (and everyone loves a gimmick) but not everyone is happy about it. Mostly birds.
Anyway, DoorDash deliveries will only initially be available to a small number of Eligible DoorDash customers will be invited to participate via the DoorDash app. Customers can place their order through the DoorDash Air store in the app, selecting Drone Delivery when prompted, and within 15 minutes, their purchase will be delivered by drone.
Wing drones can carry a payload of just over 1kg, and travel at a speed of around 110km/h. It’s not enough for a full-on feast, but it’s a start.
The future is wild.
This article has been updated since it was first published.