The future has arrived in a small Aotearoa town and the locals' reactions to it are incredible stuff.
Drones have started delivering pizzas in the small, infamous town of Huntly. SkyDrop is the company powering the flying robots and they’ve just got the ‘all good’ from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to begin ‘store-to-door’ deliveries.
They’re based in Huntly, so they kicked off the robot revolution by delivering Domino’s pizzas in their hometown.
Simona, who lives next to the town’s Domino’s store, said the back of the pizza outlet was decked out with some crazy tech.
“There was a massive trailer setup with big monitors,” he told Stuff. “If you walk into the trailer, it looked like a gaming parlour, a couple of dudes controlling the drones using a screen and VR (virtual reality) devices.”
“There were drones, they chucked pizzas in the middle, and it gets delivered. Who would have thought of it coming to Huntly before anywhere else in NZ?”
Simona told some mates what was happening and said he received eye rolls and ‘oh whatever’ in response.
Other Huntly folk see the new tech as a welcome surprise.
“Huntly needs a break from bad press,” said Roana Daley.
“Why not Huntly?” asks Willie Whiunui, a fan of the drones.
However, others aren’t interested and/or have reservations.
One such hesitant civilian is Laurie Mac, who says he’s not interested in drones until they can deliver him a 24-pack of Waikato Draughts.
Joanne Lovell is asking the big questions, wondering how the flying robots will deal with the real world.
“What if they drop the pizza in the river?” she asks. “What if the birds attack the pizza?”
Loise Rerekure quite simply hates all of it.
“It’s like you are on camera all the time and the drones are another added element,” she says. “Wars are being fought with drones, and they have got this ability to be more than just a toy... and once you start, you can't stop.”
Her partner even says he’d shoot one if he saw it.
“I think it is a tracker and, to me, it is an invasion of privacy.”
If a drone vs humans war does break out, the Huntly might become the Hunted.
