Sejong City to Start Pizza Delivery by Drones

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Minister Noh, Hyung-Wook) announced that Sejong City will start commercializing pizza drone delivery from August 22 through collaboration with South Korean drone company "P-Square" and global pizza chain "Domino Pizza".

The area where drone delivery will be commercialized for the first time in Korea is Sejong City, which has been selected as a drone demonstration city and a special liberalization zone, and the section is from Sejong Boram Domino's Pizza to Sejong Lake Park.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said that pizza drones can be delivered two to three times per hour every Saturday and Sunday (13:00-18:00) from August 22 to October 31.

Considering the prevention of the spread of COVID-19, the government will guide citizens who visit Sejong Lake Park to use the app to naturally use drone delivery and announce the first commercialization through online real-time broadcasting.

Consumers who want to deliver pizza through drone delivery can order pizza using the official delivery app (Domino’s Pizza) near Sejong Lake Park. After ordering, it is possible to check the location of the drone in real-time through the mobile phone, and to receive the delivered pizza, the consumer needs to enter the password given at the time of order to prevent theft or loss.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has been developing and demonstrating drone-based services in various fields such as designating drone special liberalization (33 zones, February 2021), drone regulated sandbox business (13 companies, May 2021), demonstration cities for drones (10 cities, May 2021).

In addition, the Ministry is providing systematic support such as easing the system, funding, and demand-supply matching to strengthen the international competitiveness of drones developed with domestic technology and create new services.

The P-Square, which succeeded in commercializing pizza delivery this time, has been supported by the government for several years for drone-regulated sandbox business and received state funds (2.48 billion won) to secure drone delivery technology.

Moreover, the precision satellite navigation technology used in drone delivery is a real-time GPS calibration system (MBC-RTK) developed by MBC for over five years. Through collaboration with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, it has dramatically improved location accuracy by using drones, equipped with sensors to check for abnormal symptoms of air, and applied drone autonomous flight technology to perform missions without separate controls.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport believes that the commercialization of drone delivery in the city will be a signal of the creation of new services using drones, the icon of the 4th industry, along with the first anniversary of the announcement of the Korean New Deal, along with eco-friendly future mobility, digital twin and job creation. It will be expanded and operated in the future as a non-face-to-face service more suitable for the post-COVID era.

"We are also preparing safety accidents by deploying observers and safety personnel near Sejong Lake Park to prevent accidents due to the drone delivery," said Kim Dong-ik, head of the high-tech aircraft department of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. He said, "We will continue to find and foster necessary policy and strategic support measures so that drone-based services can be safely shared with our daily lives in the future."

Reported by Smart City Today