August 15, 2020, 05:56 PM
A drone delivered five boxes of ayam penyet from Marina South Pier to the currently-quarantined crew of an offshore vessel located approximately 3km away.
This was a test flight for a new initiative called PandaFly, a collaboration between Foodpanda and ST Engineering, conducted on Aug. 13.
The drone, which has a maximum speed of 15 metres per second, took less than 10 minutes to complete the trip.
PandaFly test drone. Photo by James Spencer.
The drone used in the test flight can carry up to 2kg, and has a delivery radius of 5km.
Drones with a longer range and greater carrying capacity will be tested as well.
Drones will not replace riders
The drones are not about to replace human riders, however.
PandaFly will see riders bringing orders from restaurants to a collection point, where they will load the food onto the drones.
The drones will deliver the food to a dedicated hub, where other riders will collect the orders and complete the deliveries.
This means that those ordering food delivery need not worry about not having a helipad just yet.
Find out more about PandFly here:
Totally unrelated but here's the latest episode of our podcast
Top image by James Spencer
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