Little Caesars rolls out drone delivery

WYLIE, Texas (NBC, KYMA) - Little Caesars is stepping into the future with drone pizza deliveries, with the company saying the drones can carry almost 10 pounds of pizza and drinks.

In a suburb in Texas, pizzas from Little Caesars whizz by 200-feet high in a new way to deliver touted as faster and cheaper.

"To watch the drone come and deliver your pizza order. It's kind of like a little event," said Trish Heusel, Vice President of Innovation at Little Caesars.

NBC News got a behind the scenes look at the launching pad.

If you order a pizza from Little Caesar's in Wylie, Texas, a Flytrex Runner will pick it up for you, load it onto a drone, and then it's up in the air and off to the customers' house in less than five minutes.

When asked if he sees this as the future we're all going to be using for pizza delivery soon, Jason McGarry, Regional Operations Manager for Flytrex said, "Yes, I would say so, absolutely, especially when you can get your order delivered at four and a half minutes...Now you're guaranteed freshness, it's still hot...When you open up that pizza, you still see steam coming out of it."

The pies are loaded up onto a hook before flying to customers.

Little Caesar's says there's no additional cost to ordering via drone as it's on par with normal delivery fees based on distance, and you don't need to tip a robot.

However, there are potential downsides, like McGarry confirming a drone won't deliver if it's raining.

"The only other limitations again is if you ordered more than 8.8 pounds. It'll get delivered to you, but it'll take two flights," McGarry added.

Little Caesar's isn't the only company getting into drone delivery. In select markets, customers can order groceries from Walmart to be delivered by drone, and Amazon launched Prime Air in eight U.S. cities.

As for Little Caesars, they say the experiment in Wylie is just a slice of things to come.

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