7-Eleven Partners With Drone Delivery Service to Send Packages Right to Your Door

Holiday deliveries are usually a nightmare this time of year with packages getting lost and sometimes not even making it to their destination. Flirtey, an independent drone delivery service, has made a significant dent in the delivery glitch by reportedly completing 77 autonomous deliveries to customer homes in the United States. Partnering with the convenience retail chain 7-Eleven, this marks the world’s first successful autonomous drone delivery to a customer’s residence.

The collaboration, which kicked off in July, began a series of regular weekend deliveries during November from a 7-Eleven store to a dozen select customers. First, they placed their orders on a custom app which listed items available for delivery. Customers were then notified when their drone was loaded, when it departed from the store and when it would arrive at their doorstep – making tracking a package virtually obsolete.

Flirtey described how the drone delivery service was executed. Once an order was placed for 7-Eleven merchandise – including items such as hot and cold food and over-the-counter medicines such as 7-Select Night Time Cold & Flu Relief, 7-Select Headache Relief and aspirin. Delivering medication aligns with Flirtey’s mission statement which is to “save lives and change lifestyles by making delivery instant.”

They were then loaded into a custom Flirtey drone delivery container and flown to a local customer’s house autonomously using precision GPS.

In this six and half-minute video demo, you can see in real time view as the six-rotor drone Flirtey revs up its engine. It’s helicopter-like blades pilot it to its destination. Flying overhead, it makes precise turns over farmland to Flirtey’s home offices. It even tilts up a bit for a close-up so you can see their logo embedded into the grass. As it hovers over the destination, it releases the package which floats safely to the ground.

Customers of all ages — including elderly couples, parents, and college students — participated in the deliveries. Their feedback cited the speed and convenience as the most appealing aspects of Flirtey deliveries. On average, customers received their packages by less than 10 minutes from the point of order to delivery. In their release, they pointed to one satisfied customer who called her family to tell them they had just become “the real-life Jetsons.”

With Flirtey, it seems instant drone delivery service is no longer a futuristic idea. Their goal is to make deliveries in the sky as normal as trucks on the road.

Your Daily Dish reached out to Flirtey for a comment.