People don't trust drones to deliver pizza

A week ago, Domino’s successfully delivered a pizza via drone in Auckland, New Zealand. The company, working with Flirtey, says it wants to be the first to offer regular drone delivery globally and aims to roll out flying pizza-copters, if the countries where it operates are willing to make it legal.

Pizza-loving New Zealand was one of the first countries to give commercial drone delivery the green light last year. “Our enabling laws and regulation means we have the ideal environment,” Transport Minister Simon Bridges boasted after the successful pizza drop.

But the chain will face an obstacle that has nothing to do with regulation: The majority of adults surveyed in a recent poll don’t trust drones to deliver their pizza. The YouGov poll reveals that only 37% have faith their delivery would arrive undamaged. Only a third of those surveyed trust that a drone-delivered pie would arrive the right temperature or drop off the pizza with no problems. The other two-thirds presumably prefer a human delivery person to a robot.

Though millennials were found to be more trusting of drone delivery in general, the poll suggests a problem bigger than just pepperoni. When it comes to other companies that might make drone deliveries, 38% say they’d trust Amazon, followed by the United States Postal Service (23%), Google (20%), and Walmart (19%). People don’t seem to really care that Martha Stewart loves her drone.

On Monday, new regulations went into effect in the US, which many say will allow for even more innovation in the drone industry. Amazon has been working on a program for years, promising that one day soon Amazon Prime Air will be able to deliver a package in 30 minutes or less. And in July, 7-11 was the very first company to deliver a package to a customer’s house by drone, dropping off a Slurpee, chicken sandwich, donuts, hot coffee and candy to a lucky Reno, Nevada resident.

Deputy editor of Real Future.