Uber Eats plans expanded drone delivery partnership with Zipline in the U.S.

Uber is partnering with Zipline to deliver items by drone in the United States through its Uber Eats marketplace, according to a report citing the companies’ efforts to expand last-mile delivery using unmanned aircraft.

The companies’ shared long-term goal is to reach joint capacity of one million drone deliveries per day by the end of 2029. Drone delivery is designed to shorten delivery time and reduce the friction of dense or hard-to-reach routes, and it typically depends on local regulatory approvals, landing infrastructure, and careful flight operations.

For Uber, the interest is strategic as it pushes beyond rides and traditional food delivery into logistics capabilities that can complement its existing network. Uber Eats already serves as a major ordering channel for restaurants and other local merchants, and drone delivery could be used as an additional method to move goods when ground delivery is slower or more costly.

Zipline, the drone delivery operator, has built its model around using autonomous or semi-autonomous flights and a logistics system that matches demand with aircraft and drop-off points. If scaled as described, the partnership would represent a larger deployment of that approach under an e-commerce-style demand model rather than a single-purpose delivery flow.

Even with the stated capacity target, the public reporting does not specify which U.S. regions or cities are covered, how orders will be routed, or what product categories will be eligible for drone drop-offs. It also does not lay out whether the drone network would run on a direct-fulfillment basis for each Uber Eats order or through a blended operations approach with existing delivery partners.

The post also does not disclose commercial terms, such as whether Uber would fund part of the drone infrastructure, how revenue would be shared, or what pricing customers will see for drone delivery. Likewise, it does not describe the operational readiness timeline for reaching the end-2029 goal, beyond the longer-term framing.

What is clear from the announcement framing is that the companies are presenting drone deliveries not as a standalone pilot, but as a scalability program with a measurable throughput target. That matters for the broader delivery industry, where consumer expectations for speed and reliability are rising while costs and labor availability remain persistent constraints.