Chipotle says it’s jumping on the drone delivery bandwagon. This week, the company announced a new pilot program in Texas that will test the viability of airdropping customers’ orders into their backyards for them.
A press release published Thursday makes the whole process sound quite easy as far as drone-robot hybrid delivery burritos go. Certain customers in the Rowlette suburb of Dallas will be able to download the app for Zipline, Chipotle’s new drone partner, and place their orders.
Then, Chipotle staff will place the food orders at locations where they can be picked up by the drones, which will then fly to customers’ homes. The company says that Zipline’s drones will hover “about 300 feet in the air” while a little carrier that contains the food is lowered to the ground.
The press release states that a “small number of Zipline users will have access to Zipotle starting today, ahead of a broader service launch in the coming weeks.”
We’ve officially unlocked burritos🌯⚡
Introducing Zipotle — all your favorites from @ChipotleTweets, now delivered faster by air pic.twitter.com/zZukZf0wV9
— Zipline (@zipline) August 21, 2025
Zipline has a very reputable track record, having made a name for itself with aerial deliveries of medical supplies in countries with poor infrastructure. Most notably, the company partnered with the Rwandan government in 2016 to deliver much-needed blood products to remote hospitals.
The company’s work greatly reduced the amount of time it took to deliver life-saving materials to patients, Rwandan doctors have said. Such applications of drone technology—to provide vital materials to people who need them—seem like the exact sort of thing the autonomous delivery industry should be focused on.
On the other hand, Zipline’s pivot to burrito deliveries may not be the best use of its talents.
Thursday’s press release includes some humorous comments from Zipline top exec, Keller Rinaudo Cliffton. “With Zipline, you tap a button, and minutes later food magically appears – hot, fresh, and ultra-fast,” said Cliffton, CEO and Co-Founder of Zipline. “Starting today, families in the Dallas area can have food delivered by Zipotle and served for lunch or dinner. What once felt like science fiction is soon going to become totally normal.”
Okay, sure.
Of all the trendy new tech applications, my feeling is that grocery delivery via drone is easily one of the goofiest. For 90 percent of us, there is almost no foreseeable benefit to having a flying robot deliver our home goods. The only real difference is that companies don’t have to hire new delivery workers, and now there are drones clogging up the aerial byways around your house.
That said, some studies claim that drone delivery can reduce carbon emissions, although it’s not clear how solid the science on that is yet (for instance, a recent study found big carbon savings between drone delivery and deliveries made by diesel trucks but, then again, most burritos are not delivered by diesel trucks).
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