Project Wing, a unit of Google’s parent company Alphabet, Inc., has teamed up with Chipotle and Virginia Tech (my alma mater, Go Hokies!) to test drone delivery service at the campus in Blacksburg. Obviously, guac will still cost extra. Possibly a lot extra based on added payload weight.

Project Wing will use self-guided hybrids that can fly like a plane or hover like a helicopter. They will make deliveries from a Chipotle food truck to assess the accuracy of navigation systems and how people respond.

The devices will hover overhead and lower the Chipotle edibles with a winch.

The project is part of Virginia Tech’s efforts to become a leader in new transportation technology, school President Timothy Sands said in an interview.

“It sounds simple, but it’s not,” Sands said. “There are a lot of things to work out from a safety point of view and a policy point of view.”

The university is part of the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, one of six groups chosen as unmanned test beds by the FAA.

The FAA’s main concerns with any sort of drone delivery service are safety and reliability. They’re worried about how well drones will be able to avoid each other when there are a ton of them flying in low air-space. Honestly, I’m more concerned about their ability to avoid overhead power lines and net-throwing burrito pirates. Free burritos are like a treasure chest to college kids.

Keep going for a video news report from Bloomberg.

Source: Geekologie – It’s Raining Guac: Chipotle, Virginia Tech Team Up To Test Drone Burrito Delivery