Chipotle Needs to Drop a Burrito on Your Head with New Drone Supply

Chipotle says it’s leaping on the drone supply bandwagon. This week, the corporate introduced a brand new pilot program in Texas that may take a look at the viability of airdropping prospects’ orders into their backyards for them.

A press release printed Thursday makes the entire course of sound fairly simple so far as drone-robot hybrid supply burritos go. Sure prospects within the Rowlette suburb of Dallas will be capable to obtain the app for Zipline, Chipotle’s new drone accomplice, and place their orders.

Then, Chipotle employees will place the meals orders at places the place they are often picked up by the drones, which is able to then fly to prospects’ houses. The corporate says that Zipline’s drones will hover “about 300 toes within the air” whereas a bit provider that comprises the meals is lowered to the bottom.

The press launch states {that a} “small variety of Zipline customers may have entry to Zipotle beginning right now, forward of a broader service launch within the coming weeks.”

We’ve formally unlocked burritos🌯⚡

Introducing Zipotle — all of your favorites from @ChipotleTweets, now delivered sooner by air pic.twitter.com/zZukZf0wV9

— Zipline (@zipline) August 21, 2025

Zipline has a very reputable track record, having made a reputation for itself with aerial deliveries of medical provides in international locations with poor infrastructure. Most notably, the corporate partnered with the Rwandan authorities in 2016 to deliver much-needed blood products to distant hospitals.

The corporate’s work enormously lowered the period of time it took to ship life-saving supplies to sufferers, Rwandan docs have stated. Such purposes of drone know-how—to offer important supplies to individuals who want them—look like the precise kind of factor the autonomous supply trade needs to be centered on.

Then again, Zipline’s pivot to burrito deliveries might not be the perfect use of its abilities.

Thursday’s press launch contains some humorous feedback from Zipline high exec, Keller Rinaudo Cliffton. “With Zipline, you faucet a button, and minutes later meals magically seems – sizzling, recent, and ultra-fast,” stated Cliffton, CEO and Co-Founding father of Zipline. “Beginning right now, households within the Dallas space can have meals delivered by Zipotle and served for lunch or dinner. What as soon as felt like science fiction is quickly going to turn into completely regular.”

Okay, positive.

Of all the stylish new tech purposes, my feeling is that grocery supply by way of drone is well one of many goofiest. For 90 p.c of us, there may be nearly no foreseeable profit to having a flying robotic ship our house items. The one actual distinction is that corporations don’t have to rent new supply employees, and now there are drones clogging up the aerial byways round your own home.

That stated, some research declare that drone supply can reduce carbon emissions, though it’s not clear how stable the science on that’s but (as an example, a recent study discovered huge carbon financial savings between drone supply and deliveries made by diesel vans however, then once more, most burritos are usually not delivered by diesel vans).