Policy

Burrito Bomber Will Drone Drop Deliciousness on Your Head in 2015

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Remember the TacoCopter? The startup was going to use your phone's GPS to deliver tacos via drone directly to your doorstep. The Internet (and the staff of Reason) got pretty excited, but the company turned out to be little more than a pie-in-the-sky idea—stalled in concept phase by unfriendly regulators. 

But it's time to get your hopes up again, Internet! Meet the Burrito Bomber:

Here's the self-description provided by the folks at Darwin Aerospace:

It works like this:

  • You connect to the Burrito Bomber web-app and order a burrito. Your smartphone sends your current location to our server, which generates a waypoint file compatible with the drone's autopilot.
  • We upload the waypoint file to the drone and load your burrito in to our custom made Burrito Delivery Tube.
  • The drone flies to your location and releases the Burrito Delivery Tube. The burrito parachutes down to you, the drone flies itself home, and you enjoy your carne asada.

For now, the aircraft you see in the video is the only one of it's kind, since unmanned aerial vehicles like this one are not cleared for commercial use. But now there is hope on the horizon for food delivery drones of all nationalities. As the legal scholars at the Burrito Bomber website explain:

The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 requires the FAA to hammer out regulations for commercial use drones by September 2015. This means in 2015 we'll be able to take to the skies to bring you your burrito faster than you can say "¡Salsa roja por favor!".

Drones: not all sadness and death!

Via BoingBoing, obviously.