(Yicai Global) July 8 -- Chinese on-demand food delivery giant Meituan unveiled its prototype drone delivery system that can deliver meals within a three-kilometer radius in 15 minutes at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference that opened in Shanghai today, Sina reported.

Meituan has been working on unmanned aerial vehicles for deliveries, automated launch sites and a dispatching system since 2017, the report said. Over 90 percent of the components used are independently developed by Beijing-based Meituan.

Low-altitude logistics networks in urban areas will become an important area of technological innovation over the next 10 to 20 years, said Senior Vice President Wang Puzhong. The combination of drones and life services is the best way to build a low-altitude logistics network.

Meituan is collaborating with the government of Jinshan district in Shanghai to build a low-altitude logistics demonstration center and actively explore the use of drones in Shanghai.

Meituan was able to fulfill its first drone delivery in Shenzhen earlier this year. Its UAVs also distributed emergency supplies to residents in Shenzhen’s Nanshan district when they were quarantined following an outbreak of Covid-19. As of last month, Meituan’s UAVs had completed more than 200,000 test flights and delivered over 2,500 real orders.

Editor: Kim Taylor