Domino’s Tests Drone Delivery in New Zealand

Say a prayer for the pizza delivery guy. The dude who kept you fed from your college years all the way up until you finally started cooking for yourself (so, yeah, he’s still keeping you fed) may be in the midst of his final throes – soon to be replaced by… the drone.

Earlier today in Auckland, New Zealand, Domino’s Pizza conducted its first ever trial run of delivering a pie using one of the tiny aircrafts. According to the Guardian, the global pizza giant is hoping this test will pave the way for the brand to become the “world’s first company to offer a commercial drone delivery service.” “We’ve always said that it doesn’t make sense to have a 2-tonne machine delivering a 2kg order,” Domino’s Pizza Enterprises chief executive Don Meij was quoted as saying. That’s why you gotta order plenty of cheesy bread: It just makes sense from a ratio perspective.

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Domino’s apparently chose to test drone delivery in New Zealand because the South Pacific island nation has pretty lax laws when it comes to letting little robots buzz all over its airspace. “Our enabling laws and regulation means we have the ideal environment,” said transport minister Simon Bridges. Plus, if a drone crashes in New Zealand, it’s far more likely to hit a sheep than a person. That said, if Domino’s has its way, all those sheep may need to start worrying. The brand is reportedly hoping to get its drone delivery service up and running as soon as “late 2016.”

From there, Domino’s said the company already has its eye on drone service in Australia (where drone deliveries will become legal next month), Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Japan and Germany. As far as the US is concerned, the Guardian didn’t say anything specifically about Domino’s plans here, but the site did point out that using drones in the US will be legal starting on August 29th. So if you want free pizza, get your shotguns and fishing nets ready.