AIBRIEF
Uber and Zipline will start drone deliveries for Uber Eats later this year, with a stated goal of 1 million daily flights by end of 2029 — but DoorDash and Wing are already flying in Atlanta, giving the target a competitor problem.
Uber and Zipline will start drone food deliveries for Uber Eats later this year in Pea Ridge, Arkansas and the Dallas–Fort Worth metro, the two US markets where Zipline already operates. The pair set a stated company goal of one million drone deliveries per day by the end of 2029, a target that anchors Monday's press release but isn't an analyst forecast.
Uber is making a strategic investment in Zipline, with financial terms undisclosed by both sides. Zipline brings the aircraft and a track record of more than 2.7 million deliveries, most of them moving healthcare supplies and retail orders rather than restaurant food; existing partners include Walmart and Chipotle. Uber brings the dispatch layer and the user base, after launching a separate Uber Eats drone partnership with Flytrex in 2025. The DoorDash and Wing partnership, which began in 2022 and recently expanded into metro Atlanta, is already flying a competing drone-delivery service — giving Uber and Zipline's 2029 timeline concrete competitive pressure.
As Engadget notes in its coverage of Monday's announcement, the DoorDash-Wing operation is ahead of the Uber-Zipline rollout on geography and years of operation. Uber and Zipline say they plan to roll out to "dozens" of additional cities, though the 1M figure and the rollout pace are both company targets rather than committed delivery volumes.
For now the footprint stays small: two markets, two operators, and a target date three years out. This article supplements the earlier analysis of Uber's broader automation strategy — see "Uber's drone deal isn't about drones" for the partnership mechanics and Zipline's healthcare-and-retail track record.