1 Million Drone Deliveries a Day by 2028 | Keller Cliffton, Zipline
Sep 14, 2026 · 41:26
Zipline Co-Founder and CEO Keller Cliffton tells Ti Morse how an Uber Eats partnership demanding 1 million drone deliveries a day within 2.5 years forced Zipline to discard its operating plan six months after setting it. He argues hardware companies are chains of 30 multiplied disciplines where one failure makes the company a zero, producing shifting existential crises from tariffs to maintenance backlogs. Because customers want 'teleportation,' not drones, Zipline is artificially constraining home sign-ups while doubling factory capacity originally sized for 20,000–40,000 aircraft a year—Cliffton needs five times that. He says 5.5 billion annual US instant deliveries could become 55 billion at observed behavior, and closes arguing robotics will 'give the Earth back to humans.'
