Russian Pizzeria Launches Drone Delivery Service

Here's a video of an unmanned drone delivering a pizza in Syktyvkar, Russia. DoDo Pizza launched "the country's first ever pizza delivery service" via drone this past weekend, reports the International Business Times. Aptly called the DodoCopter, the drone apparently delivered the pizza from the restaurant to a man standing in the city's main square in under half an hour.

The DodoCopter has eight octocopters, and can hold up to 5 kilograms (11 pounds) and travel as fast as 40km/hr (25 mph). It also is mounted with cameras and has a built-in GPS system so that managers can monitor the delivery's progress. Customers can order their drone-delivered pizza online or over the phone. The St. Petersburg Times writes that once the drone reaches the customer's door, DoDo Pizza's manager calls the customer to alert them to walk outside in order to accept their delivery. Once the drone reaches its destination, it hovers 20 meters (66 feet) above ground to prevent people from stealing it. The pizza is then lowered to the customer by a special cable.

Drones may just become the preferred method of pizza delivery in the future: Pizza chain Domino's experimented with a drone, which it dubbed the "domicopter," back in 2013. It was able to deliver two large pizzas in ten minutes within a four mile radius. And just earlier this year, a pizzeria in Mumbai claimed that it used a drone to deliver a pie to a nearby high rise building. Go, watch the video:

Video: DoDo Pizza Delivery

· Pie in the Sky [IBT]
· Syktyvkar Pizzeria First to Launch Drone Delivery Service [St. Petersburg Times]
· DoDo Pizza Delivery [YouTube]
· All Drone Coverage on Eater [-E-]