Google Pizza Delivery Drones?

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I thought Google canned this idea a while back but I guess not. Hey, as long as it gets to me on time and intact, I don't care how the pizza is delivered. ;)

In Google's version of the future, a drone could deliver your pizza. The search giant's parent company, Alphabet, is considering the launch of a drone delivery endeavor, called Wing Marketplace, for shuttling food through the air to consumers, according to a report Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal. The company has met with Domino's Pizza and grocer Whole Foods as possible partners, the report said, citing former Google employees. Each delivery would cost customers a $6 fee.
 
Do they think a $6 drone delivery fee can compete with a $2 or $3 tip to have a driver bring you the pizza?
 
"Hello? Dominos? My pizza arrived with 00 buckshot in it. 9 pellets to be exact. Because of the holes in the box from the pellets, the pizza is COLD!"
 
Xrave said:
Do they think a $6 drone delivery fee can compete with a $2 or $3 tip to have a driver bring you the pizza?
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Many many moons ago I delivered pizzas.

If you really only tip a couple bucks you don't want to know what they do to your pizzas as they are prepared.

I always do 5 at least. The drivers remember and have "lists" of who's good and who gets the special treatment.
 
if they drop a pizza on my car ..can i sue ?..an what happens when one gets shot down ? ..do they refund your cash ?
 
what happens if some idiot keeps the Pizza and drone when he shoots it down >?

this just seems like a bad idea to me ..... what if the drone tilts too far..... all the cheese will go to one side o the pie ..plus up in the air it may get cold ..who the heck wants to pay an extra $6 for cold food ?
 
Dahkoht said:
Many many moons ago I delivered pizzas.

If you really only tip a couple bucks you don't want to know what they do to your pizzas as they are prepared.

I always do 5 at least. The drivers remember and have "lists" of who's good and who gets the special treatment.
Click to expand...

If I ordered a $10 pizza and gave a 30% ($3 tip), then I would have assumed that would be sufficient.
 
Xrave said:
If I ordered a $10 pizza and gave a 30% ($3 tip), then I would have assumed that would be sufficient.
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3 isn't going to get it spit on if it's really 10 bucks or less , unless you're ordering 30 mins before closing time , and or live on the outside edge of the delivery area and it's raining. Never , ever do either of those unless you've already known good tipper , ordering close to closing time is a guarantee to have shit done to your pizza.

I'm just saying in 91 or so 2 bucks was meh , didn't get your shit drug across the floor before put in the oven , but wasn't going to get it there quick either.

It's 2016 now , and I'm guessing anything less than 3 gets your pizza the special treatment. Unless you live walking distance to the delivery place. If you order two or more pizzas ? You'd better be getting out a 5 or more is a safe bet.

Just did that for a year or so before waiting tables and bartending once turned 21 , and that experience and then waiting/bartending has led me to always , always tip on the high side , especially for those sorts of things. I've seen in kitchens what being known as a bad tipper gets , and it's far worse in pizza delivery places because often they are much more free to come up with experimental techniques.

(the movie Waiting was definitely done by someone with restaurant experience , because not only were those character types in every restaurant , but being picky about how your meal is ordered , being a bitch , or sending your shit back ? Yeah , it's game time back there)
 
Dahkoht said:
Many many moons ago I delivered pizzas.

If you really only tip a couple bucks you don't want to know what they do to your pizzas as they are prepared.

I always do 5 at least. The drivers remember and have "lists" of who's good and who gets the special treatment.
Click to expand...
As always, it depends on the total food price, but when I'm ordering pizza for one (one pie covering multiple meals), I'm usually paying $3.50 delivery fee and about $2.50 more on the tip. If that's insufficient, then tough shit. I'll also complain loudly if I detect anything wrong with my food; if I don't then I guess I don't care what was done to it.

Then again, I live in Oregon where there's a relatively decent minimum wage and no exceptions for tipped employees, so the drivers around here have a lot less cause to complain.

To get back on the topic proper, I guess I wouldn't have a problem with a $6 delivery fee, though ordering pizza from Dominos isn't an option for me because I can get better pizza delivered.
 
Dahkoht said:
3 isn't going to get it spit on if it's really 10 bucks or less , unless you're ordering 30 mins before closing time , and or live on the outside edge of the delivery area and it's raining. Never , ever do either of those unless you've already known good tipper , ordering close to closing time is a guarantee to have shit done to your pizza.

I'm just saying in 91 or so 2 bucks was meh , didn't get your shit drug across the floor before put in the oven , but wasn't going to get it there quick either.

It's 2016 now , and I'm guessing anything less than 3 gets your pizza the special treatment. Unless you live walking distance to the delivery place. If you order two or more pizzas ? You'd better be getting out a 5 or more is a safe bet.

Just did that for a year or so before waiting tables and bartending once turned 21 , and that experience and then waiting/bartending has led me to always , always tip on the high side , especially for those sorts of things. I've seen in kitchens what being known as a bad tipper gets , and it's far worse in pizza delivery places because often they are much more free to come up with experimental techniques.

(the movie Waiting was definitely done by someone with restaurant experience , because not only were those character types in every restaurant , but being picky about how your meal is ordered , being a bitch , or sending your shit back ? Yeah , it's game time back there)
Click to expand...

I worked in the industry for years, and my wife has been doing it for around 12 years but just moonlighting bartending these days because she enjoys it and we just blow the couple hundred she makes a night (plus if I stop by I get free drinks and yes the propreiter knows).

Neither her or I have ever seen a single meal get screwed with. We'd make weak drinks for people you knew were crappy tippers, skimp on sides, make them wait, and you always knew certain groups of people would be a pain in the ass... but you must have worked at some pretty shitty restaurants if you actually fucked with the food. Hell, even when I worked for Outback for a bit this stuff never happened.

Nonetheless your point on $5 for a driver is correct. Any less and you are a jackass no matter how much you ordered. If you want to pay less go pick it up yourself and no need to tip ;)
 
haste. said:
I worked in the industry for years, and my wife has been doing it for around 12 years but just moonlighting bartending these days because she enjoys it and we just blow the couple hundred she makes a night (plus if I stop by I get free drinks and yes the propreiter knows).

Neither her or I have ever seen a single meal get screwed with. We'd make weak drinks for people you knew were crappy tippers, skimp on sides, make them wait, and you always knew certain groups of people would be a pain in the ass... but you must have worked at some pretty shitty restaurants if you actually fucked with the food. Hell, even when I worked for Outback for a bit this stuff never happened.

Nonetheless your point on $5 for a driver is correct. Any less and you are a jackass no matter how much you ordered. If you want to pay less go pick it up yourself and no need to tip ;)
Click to expand...


Just because you didn't see it , don't fool yourself. Funny you mention Outback , I did the admin during the day and bartended at night. Did occasional Key shifts too for the hell of it. Have seen the asst mgr give the go ahead for the Outback Special (sirloin back in mid 90's no idea now) , to have special things done to it after two women came in 15 mins before closing, bitched from the moment they sat down , and sent the Sirloin back three times.

So yeah , it happens. Everywhere , at some time , has a pissed off cook , who broke the grill down and cleaned it , and 5 mins before closing time someone walks in and proceeds to bitch. It's game on then.

Again , why I would never tip less than 5 to pizza delivery (ahead of time online so they know it ahead of time too ) , and would never walk in a restaurant right before closing time.

You can't avoid shenanigans completely , 100% guaranteed , but you can certainly cut down on the chances of it by not giving them the reason to begin with.

And you may have never seen it, and not saying it happens regularly to the average customer , but the extremely difficult ones ? Absolutely.
 
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a $3 tip should be plenty for a pizza delivery. I'm already paying an extra $2. occasionally if it works out that i dont have to break a 20, i'll give 5. but no way in hell thats my regular practice.



also, never really understood spitting on people's food. chances are they wont notice, and youll just go home smiling like a psychopath who one upped them.
 
On topic , I have no idea of the weight carrying capacity of these things but wouldn't it have to be huge to carry 4 or 5 large pizzas in a bag that keeps them warm too ? Forget drinks etc. Just curious what kind of groceries from Whole Foods could be delivered also weight wise.
 
Pizza delivered by drones is going to take a LONG time.

as Dahkoht (above) pointed out, weight is big factor. Besides the limitations on distance (gotta have enough charge in your batteries to get back), there's the training aspect for the pilot. One mistake & a crash later, the cost savings (if any) are consumed by the cost to repair/replace the delivery drone.

Whether or not it outweighs the car insurance & gas is another question. I just don't see how this could save money. You still have to pay the pilot. Unless we're talking auto-pilot and GPS...
 
J Macker said:
Pizza delivered by drones is going to take a LONG time.

as Dahkoht (above) pointed out, weight is big factor. Besides the limitations on distance (gotta have enough charge in your batteries to get back), there's the training aspect for the pilot. One mistake & a crash later, the cost savings (if any) are consumed by the cost to repair/replace the delivery drone.

Whether or not it outweighs the car insurance & gas is another question. I just don't see how this could save money. You still have to pay the pilot. Unless we're talking auto-pilot and GPS...
Click to expand...


Honestly I can't see the cost savings even being possible. Taking for example most pizza delivery places around here pay drivers min wage , then they get tips , plus say a dollar a run (each ticket you deliver gets you a dollar which is paid for as part of that delivery fee) and so on. That essentially is their "gas" fee , and drivers are responsible for their own car insurance usually.

It honestly seems to me of Google knowing it's something Amazon said they'd do , so now they need to say it too. I can't see mini-Chinook type monster drones toting around 3 large pizzas and others delivery two gallons of milk from Whole Foods.

Then there's weather conditions that kick in. So it can't be a whole drone fleet , it's got to have combination of the drivers and drones , which then seems a hell of a lot of trouble and so on.
 
How can a drone carry a kicking and screaming child? Must be code phrase for something else. :D:angelic:
 
Dahkoht said:
Just because you didn't see it , don't fool yourself. Funny you mention Outback , I did the admin during the day and bartended at night. Did occasional Key shifts too for the hell of it. Have seen the asst mgr give the go ahead for the Outback Special (sirloin back in mid 90's no idea now) , to have special things done to it after two women came in 15 mins before closing, bitched from the moment they sat down , and sent the Sirloin back three times.

So yeah , it happens. Everywhere , at some time , has a pissed off cook , who broke the grill down and cleaned it , and 5 mins before closing time someone walks in and proceeds to bitch. It's game on then.

Again , why I would never tip less than 5 to pizza delivery (ahead of time online so they know it ahead of time too ) , and would never walk in a restaurant right before closing time.

You can't avoid shenanigans completely , 100% guaranteed , but you can certainly cut down on the chances of it by not giving them the reason to begin with.

And you may have never seen it, and not saying it happens regularly to the average customer , but the extremely difficult ones ? Absolutely.
Click to expand...

Key shifts are a bitch. I never had the pleasure but wife had quite a few. Free dinner ticket for no tips and shit hourly. Yay.

We had mostly hispanic cooks at OB and it may be they would NEVER risk losing their jobs over a server's butthurt moment.

The industry is a different monster than anyone outside knows. I once was paid $20 to take a table because another server couldn't handle another "one of those" - ended up being a pro athlete and tipped me $100 on a $40 half hour tab.
 
Dahkoht said:
Again , why I would never tip less than 5 to pizza delivery (ahead of time online so they know it ahead of time too ) ,
Click to expand...

I'd never tip online, you never know who gets the money. And they have to declare it as earnings if it's in the system, unlike cash.

I personally believe $5 to be a good tip, but it also depends on where you live. If your house is out in the middle of nowhere you might want to tip more.
 
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