Uber said back in May that it was planning to test the use of drones for food delivery, but it seems the company’s plans in this area may be expanding rapidly.
The Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday that Uber had ran a job ad for an operations executive who could get the drone delivery program up and running in 2019, and rolled out across multiple countries within three years.
The paper reported that, after it asked Uber about the job ad, the ride-hailing firm pulled it and said the listing “does not fully reflect our program, which is still in very early days.”
When it was up, the listing apparently talked about enabling “safe, legal, efficient and scalable flight operations” for UberExpress, which refers to the UberEats drone delivery program.
Many ride-hailing firms are expanding their remits to take in deliveries and other functions, such as financial payments, at the moment—Southeast Asia’s Grab and the Dubai-based Careem, for example.
In Uber’s case, a variety of ambitions may play well with investors looking to buy into the company’s looming IPO.
When he revealed Uber’s drone food delivery plans earlier this year, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi claimed the company would be able to deliver food in as little as five minutes through the use of drones.
Uber is also working on the development of flying cars for ferrying around passengers, with partners including the Boeing-owned Aurora Flight Sciences.