Dubai: Residents - or those working out - of Dubai Silicon Oasis can soon have a drone deliver their food orders. Or medicines or other essential items.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), launched the Middle East’s first-of-its-kind drone delivery system at Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), the special economic zone for knowledge and innovation and a member of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ).
The launch event was attended by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, and Chairman of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority.
Sheikh Hamdan placed the first order using the drone delivery system through the platform from the Rochester Institute of Technology-Dubai (RIT-Dubai), one of the landing points within DSO’s drone delivery network. The order was successfully delivered from one of the take-off points in the community.
The launch comes after China’s Keeta Drone got the first commercial license issued in the UAE for ‘Beyond Visual Line of Sight’ drone deliveries from Dubai Civil Aviation Authority. The company is part of Chinese tech firm Meituan. (The ‘Beyond Visual Line of Sight’ use refers to deploying drones beyond the operator’s immediate visual coverage.)
The commercial services will be deployed on four operational drone delivery routes in Dubai Silicon Oasis. This will serve locations such as the Rochester Institute of Technology and Dubai Digital Park.
“Dubai’s high demand for on-demand delivery services and the operational challenges posed by its extreme weather underscore the potential for drone delivery to enhance efficiency and reliability,” said Dr. Yinian Mao, Vice President of Meituan and President of Keeta Drone. “We are confident that Keeta Drone's services will redefine urban logistics, improving both customer experiences and industry resilience."
Load capacity
The Keeta drones will have a load capacity of up to 2.3 kilograms. It will deploy the M-Drone Gen 3, a six-rotor drone. The hardware is melded with a ‘proprietary intelligent dispatch system and automated ground infrastructure’, the company said. “The drones provide safe, reliable, and efficient logistics solutions tailored for urban environments,” it added.
Meituan was founded in Beijing in 2010 to bring in digital innovation in the retail sector, ‘with on-demand delivery as a core offering’.
The company began considering possibilities for drones in air-ground local deliveries in 2017 and launched its first commercial delivery service in Shenzhen, China, in 2021. As of now, Keeta Drone operates 53 routes in major cities, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and completed over 400,000 deliveries.
The service spans multiple types of locations—offices, residential areas, tourist spots, parks, campuses, and libraries—offering customers over 90,000 products.
