Storyline

Drones take food deliveries to the skies over south China's Shenzhen

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In the southern Chinese tech city Shenzhen, your next take-out lunch could be delivered by drone.

More and more companies are using the low flying robots to help with "last mile" delivery services - with food orders being especially convenient.

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Office worker:

"I work in a nearby office building. When I first heard about the drone delivery service, I didn't know where the kiosk was or how to pick up the deliveries. Then my colleague explained everything to me. It's really convenient."

【Voice_over】

Couriers collect the orders from the restaurants, and drop them off at a launchpad.

They're processed, boxed, and attached to a drone, that delivers it to a kiosk, usually on top of an office building.

Chinese shopping platform Meituan, one of the first companies to launch drone food deliveries, said the idea isn't to replace delivery people, but to make their work more efficient.

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Yan Yan, public affairs specialist, Meituan:

"In fact, we are upgrading, not substituting the traditional delivery process. Compared to the traditional way of delivering food, we can basically cut delivery time by half."

【Voice_over】

Drones are also being used to transport medical supplies and other packages in cities where civil unmanned airspace has been opened for commercial use.