Nearly half the orders were simply refused by couriers
Em Barueri, na Grande São Paulo, o iFood inaugurou no início de junho uma rota de entrega por drones que conecta um shopping center a condomínios residenciais — não como experimento futurista, mas como resposta a um problema humano e cotidiano: a fricção invisível que fazia metade dos pedidos serem recusados antes mesmo de chegar à porta do cliente. A tecnologia, desenvolvida pela empresa brasileira Speedbird Aero, percorre 3,6 quilômetros em cinco minutos, transformando uma espera de até uma hora em algo quase imperceptível. É um lembrete de que a inovação mais duradoura costuma nascer não da ambição de impressionar, mas da paciência de resolver.
- Quase metade dos pedidos destinados a certos condomínios de Barueri era simplesmente recusada por entregadores que não queriam enfrentar filas em portarias e rotas terrestres ineficientes.
- O iFood respondeu retirando o trecho mais problemático da equação: um drone da Speedbird Aero agora cobre 3,6 km em cinco minutos, reduzindo entregas que podiam durar uma hora a uma fração desse tempo.
- A operação é multimodal — começa com um courier ou robô autônomo no shopping, passa pelo drone, e termina com um entregador humano percorrendo os metros finais até a porta do cliente.
- Uma mudança regulatória de 2025, que liberou voos permanentes sobre áreas habitadas, abriu caminho para que o modelo saia de Barueri e Sergipe e alcance bairros mais densos da capital paulista.
No início de junho, o iFood ativou em Barueri uma nova malha de entregas: drones passaram a transportar pedidos do shopping Iguatemi Alphaville até condomínios residenciais da região. A iniciativa não nasceu de uma aposta no futuro, mas de um problema presente — cerca de metade dos pedidos destinados a esses endereços era recusada por entregadores que enfrentavam longas esperas nas portarias, procedimentos de acesso complicados e trânsito que tornava as rotas terrestres inviáveis.
A solução adotada elimina o trecho mais problemático do percurso. Um courier ou o robô autônomo ADA retira o pedido no restaurante dentro do shopping. O pacote é então entregue a um drone da Speedbird Aero — empresa brasileira parceira do iFood desde 2019 — que percorre 3,6 quilômetros em cerca de cinco minutos. Ao pousar em um droneport instalado no condomínio, o pedido é recebido por um entregador humano, que faz o trecho final até a porta do cliente. O serviço funciona todos os dias, das 10h30 às 22h30, sem custo adicional para o consumidor.
O contraste com a entrega convencional é expressivo: o que antes podia levar uma hora agora se resolve em minutos. O drone carrega até cinco quilos, voa a até 50 km/h, opera em chuva leve e é monitorado em tempo real por uma central em Franca, no interior paulista. Conta com GPS, paraquedas de emergência e câmeras usadas exclusivamente para navegação e segurança operacional.
O iFood já acumulava experiência no setor — desde 2019 com testes, desde 2022 com autorização formal da ANAC para operações comerciais, e mais recentemente com uma rota ativa entre cidades de Sergipe, onde superou cinco mil entregas. O que mudou foi o ambiente regulatório: em 2025, novas regras passaram a permitir voos permanentes sobre áreas densamente habitadas, transformando o que era experimento em infraestrutura escalável. Para Mariana Werneck, diretora sênior de logística da empresa, os drones ampliam rotas e aumentam a produtividade dos entregadores — sem substituí-los. A próxima pergunta é se esse modelo consegue avançar para os bairros mais congestionados da própria cidade de São Paulo.
On a Sunday morning in early June, iFood switched on a new kind of delivery network in Barueri, a municipality in greater São Paulo. Drones began ferrying food orders from the Iguatemi Alphaville shopping center to residential condominiums scattered across the region—a move the company framed not as novelty, but as a solution to a concrete logistics problem that had been costing it business.
The problem was straightforward: nearly half of all orders destined for certain Barueri condominiums were being refused by delivery couriers. The culprit was not distance but friction. Couriers faced long waits at building gates, navigated byzantine access procedures, and lost time to traffic in a region where traditional routes were inefficient. Rather than absorb these losses, many simply declined the orders. iFood's answer was to remove the ground entirely from the equation—at least for the middle stretch of the journey.
The operation works in three stages. A courier or an autonomous robot named ADA picks up the order from a restaurant inside the shopping center. The package then moves to a drone—a machine built by Speedbird Aero, a Brazilian company—which carries it on a 3.6-kilometer flight that takes roughly five minutes. Once the drone lands at a designated droneport installed on the condominium grounds, a human courier takes over again, walking the final steps to the customer's door. The system runs daily from 10:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night.
The time savings are striking. A traditional delivery to these same addresses could stretch to an hour or longer. The drone covers its segment in five minutes. The aircraft itself is modest in capability—it can carry up to five kilograms, fly at speeds up to 50 kilometers per hour, and operate in light rain. It has GPS, an emergency parachute, and real-time monitoring from a control center in Franca, a city in the interior of São Paulo state. The machine can handle winds up to 55 kilometers per hour and maintain an operational altitude of 60 meters. It carries cameras, though iFood says these are used only for navigation and operational safety, not surveillance.
This is not iFood's first venture into the air. The company began experimenting with drone delivery in 2019, partnering with Speedbird Aero from the start. In 2022, it received authorization from Brazil's aviation authority, ANAC, to operate drones commercially. But the real opening came in 2025, when new regulations permitted permanent drone operations over populated areas—a shift that transformed what had been a niche experiment into something that could scale across dense urban zones. Before Barueri, iFood had been running a drone route between two cities in Sergipe state, in the northeast, completing more than five thousand deliveries there.
Mariana Werneck, iFood's senior director of logistics, described the drone as a complement to existing operations, not a replacement. The technology expands the routes the company can serve and lifts the productivity of its courier network, she said, especially in places where ground access is complicated. There is no extra charge to customers when their order arrives by drone. The company is positioning this as the first authorized drone delivery operation in Brazil to fly regularly over densely populated residential areas—a regulatory milestone that suggests the infrastructure for urban air mobility, however modest, is beginning to take shape. What comes next is expansion: whether this model can move beyond Barueri and Sergipe into the tighter, more congested neighborhoods of São Paulo itself.
Notable Quotes
The drone expands the possibilities of routes and improves the productivity of the operation, especially in areas with complex access.— Mariana Werneck, senior director of logistics at iFood
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a shopping center connected to condominiums need drones? Couldn't couriers just get better at navigating the buildings?
The issue isn't navigation—it's that the buildings themselves reject the couriers. Half the orders were being refused because drivers faced long waits at gates and complicated access procedures. The drone bypasses that entirely by landing on the property.
So the drone doesn't actually solve the last-mile problem. It just skips the middle part.
Exactly. A human still walks it to the door. But by removing the ground segment—the traffic, the gate delays, the whole friction of getting to the building—the company cuts an hour down to five minutes. That's enough to make the route profitable again.
What happens if the drone breaks down mid-flight?
It has an emergency parachute and real-time monitoring from a control center. The machine is built to handle wind and light rain. It's not invincible, but it's designed with redundancy.
Is this actually cheaper than hiring more couriers?
The company doesn't say. But if half your orders are being refused, you're not choosing between drones and couriers—you're choosing between drones and losing the business entirely.
Why does this matter beyond Barueri?
Because a regulatory change in 2025 just allowed drones to fly over populated areas permanently. Barueri is the proof of concept. If it works, this model could move into São Paulo's dense neighborhoods, where ground delivery is even more complicated.