By Vignesh Ramachandran2013-05-05 19:00:34 UTCThirsty music festivalgoers in South Africa this summer may be able to get beer instantly delivered to them — via drones.
During August's OppiKoppi Music Festival, attendees can order beers from their phones to be delivered the event's District 9 campsite. The beer-equipped drones will swoop down and deliver beer via parachute to the appropriate customer, as explained in the video above. The organizers say the beer drones are now hand-guided, but in the future they'll fly on a GPS grid.
But this 21st-century service might not fly without its share of turbulence: Targeting the right customer amongst the crowds at OppiKoppi will be an interesting challenge to overcome. And festival attendees might not have the greatest sense of motor control for catching their drink order, after having one too many.
This is not the first time someone has thought of a clever concept like this: Last year, a San Francisco-based research lab developed a burrito-dropping drone.
If this beer-drone experiment works, I can only imagine future possibilities for drone delivery. It could bring new meaning to pizza delivery and make Amazon.com's one-day shipping seems archaically slow. Maybe Ultra-Express Mail Drones are the answer to the cash-strapped United States Postal Service's troubles? Earlier this year, Reddit users hypothesized about similar delivery services through drone technology.
But note that in the United States, commercial drones are not yet legal. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to regulate them by 2015.
What do you predict drones could be used for in the future? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Mashable composite thumbnail graphic: Drone image via iStockphoto, andreart; beer image via iStockphoto, francisblack.
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