March 11 - Grubhub and drone systems developer Dexa announced a three-month pilot on Wednesday to test aerial food delivery in Green Brook, New Jersey. The program will begin next week and cover customers located within a 2.5-mile radius of the Wonder location in Green Brook, which is owned by Grubhub’s parent company.
Under the pilot, consumers ordering through the Grubhub app will have the option to select drone delivery. The company said the aerial option will not carry an extra fee beyond Grubhub’s standard delivery and service charges. A public demonstration of the service is scheduled for March 16 ahead of the pilot launch.
The deliveries will be conducted using Dexa’s DE-2020 - a fully automated aircraft that carries orders and lowers them to the ground on a cable. Dexa is among a small group of U.S. firms that both manufacture and operate delivery drones which have secured full federal aviation approval, a regulatory milestone that remains challenging for many in the sector.
Grubhub framed the initiative as a limited pilot that will be evaluated on its results before any decision is made to expand drone delivery to additional restaurant partners in the area. The collaboration follows Wonder’s acquisition of Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway last year for $650 million - a transaction that represented a steep discount relative to the $7.3 billion that Just Eat Takeaway paid four years earlier.
The move positions Grubhub in a competitive field where other food-delivery platforms, including DoorDash and Uber Eats, are also actively developing drone and robotic delivery partnerships. The pilot is therefore both a practical test of aerial logistics and a strategic step within a broader industry effort to scale autonomous delivery options.
For this local trial, Grubhub and Dexa will observe operational metrics, customer uptake, and any logistical constraints before determining whether to extend drone delivery beyond the current Wonder partnership in Green Brook. The companies did not announce a timeline for potential expansion, stating only that decisions will depend on the pilot’s outcomes.