Dallas should get ready for “Zipotle.”
Chipotle Mexican Grill on Thursday said that it is working with the autonomous delivery company Zipline, which uses aircraft to speed orders to customers and lowers orders 300 feet to the ground once they arrive to their destination.
A few Zipline users will have access to what the companies are calling “Zipotle” today. But the service will expand more broadly in the Dallas area in the coming weeks.
Customers download the Zipline app and place an order. Chipotle’s location in Rowlett, Texas, will be the first one to offer the service from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Central Time, initially, before expanding to 10 p.m. Employees place the order into a “Zipping Point,” which allows the aircraft to autonomously pick up the order.
It then flies to the destination and lowers the order to the ground in a container that looks more like a submersible than an airborne delivery mechanism. It drops the order and returns to the aircraft.
“Zipotle is a quick and convenient source of delivery that lets guests enjoy our real food from places that are traditionally challenging to serve, including backyards and public parks,” Curt Garner, chief strategy and technology officer with the Newport Beach, California-based Chipotle, said in a statement.
Zipline can carry orders up to 5.5 pounds and will increase to eight pounds over time. The company said that its insulated craft can make deliveries in wind, cold or heat. The company began making autonomous deliveries of medical products to rural hospitals in Rwanda and today makes deliveries to 5,000 such places around the world.
Autonomous deliveries, either by drone or by sidewalk robot, have been slow to fully take hold despite numerous tests involving several chains and companies. But they appear to be ready to take off as companies get funding and ink deals with more restaurant companies.
Check out RB’s look at robot deliveries here.
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