HOME, A DRONE: FOOD DELIVERY’S PRESENT AND FUTURE

There might still be times when your cookery efforts veer so far off course that you are led to ask: “Hey Siri, where can I have food delivered?” You might already habitually use apps to order food that will be delivered to your home address, effectively making the well-worn phrase “going out for dinner” only half necessary. Even the ride-sharing firm Uber has entered the market; with the company’s Uber Eats app, you can order from a nearby restaurant and expect delivery in minutes.

However, while the Uber Eats service is available in many of the United States’ major population centers, you might prefer to use Grubhub if you live somewhere more remote. Its availability extends to over 1,200 US cities and, like Uber Eats, this service lets you search for local restaurants. You can even search by food type; put “tacos”, for example, into that search field to see what comes up. The app also integrates Apple Pay at the checkout stage, making even paying for orders speedy.

Food deliveries could become even more convenient for customers in a not-too-distant future. Ford has recently launched a research project with Domino’s Pizza to investigate how food could be effectively delivered by selfdriving vehicles. Having your food dispatched by a drone doesn’t have to seem too outlandish, either; in November 2016, Domino’s and Flirtey collaborated in sending a drone to drop off a pizza delivery order at a New Zealand home.