Ice cream trucks may become a thing of the past. Ben & Jerry’s, the American ice cream company, is looking forward to using drones for delivering ice cream to your doorstep. In the 2nd week of February 2020, Terra Drone announced that they would be pairing up with Unilever. Terra Drone is a Japan-based drone service provider while Unilever is the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s. The pair is teaming up to expand the latter company’s “Ice Cream Now” service.
The startup, Terra Drone Corporation displayed the concept during Unilever’s investor event. They used a drone to deliver a package of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cups to a predetermined location. The drone flew and landed, carrying three 72 gram-ice cream containers in a delivery box that said, “Open Me.”
Ben & Jerry’s drone deliveries
Terra Drone and Unilever have already started demonstrations on how the delivery system of the company’s delivery drone would function in a more life-like scenario. Apparently, the team has been testing the concept in a Unilever facility in New York, until they are ready and legally cleared to take fly drones on New York’s streets.
According to the press release, ICN “has already grown into a huge business worldwide,” and worldwide regulations around drone use are likely to become more “flexible” in the near future. Hence the owners are working on how to make their deliveries faster, efficient and less costly using drones. However, under any circumstance, drones would result in much faster and safer deliveries compared to manned labor.
The commercial implementation dates have not yet been revealed. However, considering that Ice Cream Now has begun operations (at least in the U.S.), we’re guessing that Ben & Jerry’s first drone flight is still a year or two away. And since other companies like Amazon and Google’s sister company, Wing, have also been developing delivery drones, Ben & Jerry’s are not far behind. Thus, you can expect your ice cream to arrive on a quadcopter by the end of 2021.
