San Diego will be a test market for Uber's drone delivery service. The company's Uber Eats unit began the tests in San Diego with McDonald's and plans to expand to other restaurants later this year.
San Diego was one of 10 cities granted FAA approval last year for drone deliveries. KPBS anchor Ebone Monet and George Belch, Senior Associate Dean of Marketing at the Fowler College of Business at SDSU, discuss drone deliveries and more for this week's Friday business stories.
Q: What do we know so far about Ubers drone deliveries and how the technology will work?
A: They're going to be delivering food, McDonald's products not directly to your home but rather to safe landing zones … I think Uber envisions a future where this is going to become a big business. There may be commercial kitchens where you will have a number of companies, not just a McDonald's but other restaurants cooking food for delivery to where drones will be and others perhaps will be lined up they'll go there they'll get the food and then they will deliver it.
Q: Why is former SDSU Aztec Kawhi Leonard suing Nike?
A: What we're seeing here is a trend where a lot of athletes are creating their own brand identity. When we think of athletes as brands we often associate him with a Nike with an Under Armour or a New Balance. But now what they're trying to do is create their own identity. Kind of started with Michael Jordan and the Air Jordan Brand. Phil Mickelson has done it in the golf industry but what comes into play here is the legal implications in this case only the courts will know, they'll decide if Kawhi Leonard really has a legitimate case. He's arguing he didn't know it's a little hard to think that Nike would do this without communicating with him but what's going to happen the courts will decide and these long-term deals, the ability to use your logo is very important to an athlete.
Q: How might the merger of United Technologies and Raytheon impact defense companies that have a presence in San Diego?
A: You're going to have a big conglomerate. You're going to have Tomahawk missiles and you're going to have Pratt & Whitney engines and you're going to have artificial intelligence products, hypersonic missiles and aviation products all coming from Raytheon. The question really is how do they consolidate the two companies. That's what's going to probably have the most impact on San Diego.
