Spend
Mercedes Will Deliver a Bag of Coffee to You by Drone in Zurich
- Drones to carry coffee to vans for final trip segment
- Pilot program will help gauge demand, assess practical issues
Mercedes-Benz is taking the next step in an ambitious project to use drones for same-day delivery, with a three-week pilot in Zurich that will see mini copters shuttle bags of ground coffee to fixed points in the city.
As part of the trial, customers can place an order with Swiss online shopping platform Siroop on selected items from retailer Black & Blaze Coffee Roasting Co. The roaster packs the order on site, rather than delivering the goods to Siroop’s logistics center. Drones then fly to four fixed spots in inner-city Zurich about 10 kilometers away (6.2 miles), landing on the roofs of Mercedes-Benz Vito vans, which carry the parcel the last stretch, while the drones fly back to Black & Blaze.