In the glow of Los Angeles streetlights, a hot chicken order could arrive at your door faster than a car can find a curb. Matternet is testing home delivery for Dave’s Hot Chicken in Northridge using its autonomous M2 drones.

Customers will order through the Dave’s app and have meals flown directly to approved homes from the Northridge Reseda kitchen. The pilot marks a notable milestone for urban drone delivery and signals broader carrier partnerships in city logistics.

Matternet’s technology, built for urban logistics, aims to move food and small goods through cities with minimal road traffic. The Northridge test builds on the company’s existing Silicon Valley home-delivery service, which launched in October 2024, offering a glimpse of how city-scale delivery could look beyond healthcare corridors.

Andreas Raptopoulos, founder and CEO of Matternet, frames the effort as a remedy for congested streets and smoky commutes: drones could replace millions of car trips by delivering meals directly from kitchen to doorstep. Leon Davoyan, chief technology officer of Dave’s Hot Chicken, says innovation is in the brand’s DNA and that drones help bring meals from the kitchen to loyal customers with speed and care.

According to Robotics And Automation News, this LA pilot extends Matternet’s urban logistics ambitions and follows the California rollout that began last year.

From a technology and policy perspective, the move highlights how urban air mobility is expanding from medicine to food and retail. The M2 drone is designed for quick urban flights in restricted airspace, pairing with Dave’s app to handle order fulfillment and door-to-door routing. For Dave’s, it reinforces growth as one of the fastest-growing restaurant brands, pushing the boundaries of what fast casual can deliver.

What this means for urban logistics

• Faster delivery windows could reshape peak-hour traffic and curbside congestion
• Carrier partnerships may unlock scalable city networks for multiple brands
• Safety, privacy and airspace rules will shape how quickly pilots scale

Technology and deployment details matter here. The Matternet M2 is built for urban last-mile delivery, using autonomous routing to move meals from kitchen to doorstep with minimal human intervention in the air. The Northridge pilot leverages a Dave’s Hot Chicken kitchen in Reseda as the source of orders and a set of approved homes to receive deliveries.

Operationally, this test validates end-to-end workflow: order placement in the Dave’s app, drone pickup at the kitchen, secure handoff at the customer’s door, and a return-to-base after delivery. Real-world pilots like this are essential for testing reliability, battery performance, and weather tolerance in busy city environments.

Technology and deployment details

The effort showcases how urban logistics firms are refining autonomy to support non-medical goods. Drones must navigate dense skies, coordinate with ground teams, and ensure safe handoffs without disrupting nearby air traffic or communities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When will this expand beyond Northridge? A: The timeline hasn’t been disclosed; expansion will depend on safety, results, and regulatory clearances.

Q: How does this affect workers? A: Drones handle the last mile, but kitchens, packaging, and support staff remain essential to operations.

Q: What policy considerations loom? A: FAA oversight, local noise and privacy rules, and urban air mobility standards will shape future rollouts.

Conclusion

Urban drone delivery is moving from isolated pilots toward practical, city-scale services. The Northridge test with Dave’s Hot Chicken illustrates how a fast-growing restaurant brand and a drone carrier can collaborate to shrink delivery times, reduce road traffic, and reimagine last-mile logistics in a major market like Los Angeles. If these pilots prove reliable, expect more brands to explore drone partnerships that bring meals to customers faster and cleaner.