Uber & Zipline Target 1 Million Drone Deliveries a Day + DARPA’s Extreme-Lift Drone Challenge

Uber is making its biggest drone-delivery bet yet, partnering with Zipline as it works toward an extraordinary goal: one million drone deliveries per day. Max Trescott and David Vanderhoof trace Uber Eats' long and sometimes surprising history with drones and discuss why Uber's latest strategy may be to provide the customers while companies such as Zipline, Flytrex and Manna provide the aircraft.

Video of the week: Sports camera drone discovers that hurdles really are obstacles

Then it's on to DARPA's Lift Challenge, where competitors attempted to build aircraft capable of carrying four times their own weight. AVIDrone won with a 3.84-to-1 payload-to-weight ratio, while an unusual DefendTex design demonstrated an astonishing 9.63-to-1 ratio but failed to complete a scored run.

Max and David also examine new U.S. tariffs on imported drones, a Florida program delivering whole blood to emergency scenes by drone, and a Swedish AED drone that arrived before the ambulance and helped save a man's life.

In eVTOL news, Joby makes a $500 million defense acquisition, Eve achieves an important transition-flight milestone, a Pivotal BlackFly carries a paramedic to real 911 calls, and Florida redirects EV-charging funds toward an aerial-highway network.