It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, wait—it’s a Panera strawberry lemonade that is being delivered by a drone.

After years of research and billions of dollars in investment, robotics companies are beginning to transform the way burritos, french fries and other snacks are transported from restaurants to consumers.

This week, Heather Haddon reports on the tech that’s transforming food delivery.

America’s appetite for food delivery is huge: U.S. restaurants receive around 4 billion delivery orders a year through apps alone, according to Consumer Edge. But hungry customers often end up with cold burritos, spilled drinks and skimpy orders as human couriers juggle multiple deliveries.

Investors and technologists are betting that robotics companies can make food delivery better, faster and cheaper.

Startups such as Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics are deploying wheeled delivery robots that use lidar to navigate city streets. Acrelec has created an AI-powered smart scale to try to help restaurants know when an order is complete before it’s shipped. And drone companies such as Zipline and Wing are putting their autonomous aircraft to use in food delivery.

The permitting process for robots and drones to navigate city streets and airspace is often complex and lengthy. But proponents believe these technologies can improve the challenging economics of food delivery.

More on this topic:

• Flipped, tricked and stuck in snow: The streets are mean for food robots. (Read)
• A robot has finally achieved the Holy Grail of automation: unloading a truck. (Read)
• 🎥 See inside China’s “dark factories,” where robots run the show. (Watch)

🤔 Would you order food that’s delivered by a robot? Why or why not? Send me your thoughts, questions and predictions by hitting "reply" to this email.

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Last week, we reported on new technologies that are paving the way for autonomous farms. Readers shared their thoughts on these technologies:

• "“As someone who has worked in this area since the 1970s—I’m a professor at the University of Florida—I’m pleased to see it getting the coverage it deserves. We’ve long talked about autonomy, and it has been slow to come. But there are factors now that may accelerate adoption. They include technological advances (vision sensors and AI to handle the complex agricultural environments), political and economic shifts (the potential removal of some low-cost labor) and other changes which facilitate agricultural autonomy.”—Dr. John K. Schueller, Florida
• “This is the final nail in the coffin for the so-called small family farm, but a boon for hedge funds and tax-loss investors.”—William Hamilton, Maryland
• “I’m all in for things that make jobs easier and free time to manage the many nuances of farm management. But…technology has always transformed farming. From carts and animals a millennium ago, tractors a century ago, to genetics and better weather predictions in recent decades. Climate change will make future tech more complex to configure. Sure, technology allows for mass production. Yet water scarcity, soil erosion, and unpredictable weather events are also consequences of such a boom. What good is AI if yields aren’t the same?”—Alex Hernandez, Texas
• “I think technology will make it easier for farmers to do their jobs. We pay so much money in taxes to subsidize farm surplus, which results in a lot of waste and farmers producing ‘just in case.’ Perhaps technology will reform how lean our food waste is, making our economy more efficient.”—Joaquin Diaz-Huerta, Connecticut

(Responses have been condensed and edited.)

• This startup wants to use beams of energy to drill geothermal wells. (MIT Technology Review)
• Meta unveiled a wristband for controlling computers with hand gestures. (The New York Times)
• A head-to-toe breakdown of social media’s billion-dollar remedies. (Wired)

Thanks for reading The Future of Everything. We cover the innovation and tech transforming the way we live, work and play. This newsletter was written by Conor Grant. Get in touch with us at future@wsj.com.

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