Convenience retail company 7-Eleven have completed a fully-autonomous drone delivery to a customer’s residence. The company says this is the first time in history, a U.S. customer has received a package to their home via drone.
The historic delivery was part of the company’s research toward integrating drones into the National Airspace System, and was done in association with Flirtey, an independent drone delivery service, and the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS).
At a Reno, Nevada 7-Eleven store, two deliveries were successfully completed, says the retail giant. 7-Eleven merchandise – including hot and cold food items – were loaded into a Flirtey drone delivery container, and flown autonomously using GPS to a local customer’s house. Once at the family’s backyard, the drone hovered in place and gently lowered each package. The purchases were delivered to the family in the span of a few minutes. Products included Slurpee drinks, a chicken sandwich, donuts, hot coffee and 7-Select candy.
7-Eleven EVP and Chief Merchandising Officer Jesus Delgado-Jenkins, said the company plans to make the entire assortment in their stores to be available for delivery.
[Image courtesy: 7-Eleven]