Uber teams with Zipline on drone delivery, aiming for rapid scale on Uber Eats

Uber is moving to expand delivery beyond streets and roads by partnering with Zipline on drone delivery, a move framed as a growth lever for its Uber Eats platform.

According to a report published by Yahoo Finance, Uber and Zipline plan to use drones to bring deliveries to customers at scale, with the effort designed to reach “millions” of people through Uber Eats. The companies are also said to be working toward a goal of 1 million daily drone deliveries by 2029.

Drone delivery is still an early-stage service in most markets, but companies view it as a way to shorten delivery times and reach customers where traditional logistics can be slower or more expensive. For Uber, it adds another layer to its delivery strategy as it competes for share in food delivery and expands into broader delivery categories.

Uber Eats is Uber’s consumer-facing ordering platform that connects users to restaurants and delivery providers. In this partnership, drones would be used as the delivery mechanism, but the report does not detail which products or merchants would qualify first, what service areas are targeted, or how ordering and fulfillment would work in practice at launch.

Zipline is known in the logistics space for operating drone delivery systems, and the partnership suggests Uber is looking to combine its marketplace and demand reach with Zipline’s operational capability in drone logistics. The reported plan to bring drone deliveries through Uber Eats indicates Uber expects customers to place orders through its existing app experience rather than through a separate channel.

While the stated ambition of 1 million daily deliveries by 2029 is far more aggressive than most pilots, it also indicates Uber’s intent to treat drone delivery as more than a niche experiment. The report does not provide interim milestones, a timeline for which regions would go live first, or regulatory hurdles being cleared, which are often decisive factors for drone deployment.

As of the information in the report, the companies have not disclosed additional operational specifics such as deployment countries, drone models, delivery payload limits, partner merchant selection criteria, or the economics of unit economics for drone fulfillment. That missing detail matters because drone delivery performance can vary widely depending on geography, local airspace rules, and last-mile integration.

Investors and competitors will likely focus on whether Uber can convert a technological partnership into repeatable operations, and whether the company can scale service areas and order volume fast enough to meet its long-term delivery target. Watch for announcements on launch locations, regulatory approvals, merchant onboarding, and measured delivery performance such as speed and reliability.