AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Earlier this year Domino’s unveiled DRU the robotic unit, and now it’s introducing the DRU DRONE, the company’s expansion into the Artificial Intelligence space. “He is just as cheeky and endearing as DRU the robotic unit and we look forward to connecting people and pizza via this technology in the near future,” says Domino’s.

Like 7-Eleven in the United States, Domino’s is making commercial drone delivery a reality through a partnership with Flirtey. Domino’s and Flirtey demonstrated the process on August 25 in Auckland, New Zealand, which was conducted under Civil Aviation Rules Part 101, the final step in Flirtey’s approval process.

The use of drones as a delivery method is designed to work alongside Domino’s current delivery methods and will be fully integrated into online ordering and GPS systems, according the company’s website.

“With the increased number of deliveries we make each year, we were faced with the challenge of ensuring our delivery times continue to decrease and that we strive to offer our customers new and progressive ways of ordering from us,” said Domino’s Group CEO and Managing Director Don Meij.

He added that the company has already heavily invested in different fleet options, such as electric scooters, e-bikes and the DRU robotic unit. “We’ve always said that it doesn’t make sense to have a 2-ton machine delivering a 2-kilogram order.”

Meij continued that drones allow Domino’s to extend its delivery capabilities by removing barriers such as traffic and access, “as well as offering a much faster, safer delivery option, which means we can deliver further afield than we currently do to our rural customers while reaching our urban customers in a much more efficient time.”