The time saved on access delays should offset any reduction in individual deliveries
Em Barueri, na Grande São Paulo, o iFood começou a cruzar os céus com drones carregando refeições — não apenas para ganhar velocidade, mas para contornar uma barreira silenciosa que há muito tempo separa restaurantes de clientes: os muros e protocolos dos condomínios fechados. A expansão para Alphaville representa menos uma novidade tecnológica do que uma resposta prática a um problema humano antigo, o da distância criada não pela geografia, mas pela burocracia. À medida que a empresa avança de cidade em cidade, o que se desenha é um novo capítulo na história da logística urbana brasileira — escrito não no asfalto, mas no ar.
- Cerca de metade dos entregadores do iFood recusava pedidos em Barueri por causa das longas esperas nas portarias dos condomínios fechados — um gargalo invisível que sufocava a operação.
- Os drones contornam esse obstáculo pousando em telhados e zonas designadas, sem precisar de autorização de entrada, reduzindo o tempo de entrega à metade.
- Dois drones supervisionados por um operador humano devem realizar até 500 entregas mensais na rota inaugural, com rotas fixas e altitudes predeterminadas para garantir segurança no segundo espaço aéreo mais congestionado do mundo.
- O iFood garante que consumidores não pagarão a mais e que entregadores não perderão renda — o tempo economizado nas portarias deve compensar qualquer redução no volume individual de entregas.
- A Speedbird Aero, fabricante dos drones, desenvolve tecnologia de previsão meteorológica para voos de baixa altitude, onde condições mudam rapidamente e os sistemas convencionais não alcançam.
- O modelo hub-and-spoke — um shopping central abastecendo múltiplos condomínios — já está sendo planejado para outros bairros, sinalizando que o iFood não está mais testando: está escalando.
O iFood começou a entregar refeições de drone em Alphaville, conectando restaurantes do shopping Iguatemi a um complexo residencial em Barueri. A operação é a mais recente expansão de um modelo que a empresa vem refinando pelo Brasil há um ano, após ter recebido em Aracaju a primeira autorização permanente do país para voos sobre áreas habitadas — rota que hoje supera mil pedidos mensais.
Os drones carregam até cinco quilos, voam a até 50 km/h e cobrem dez quilômetros de ida e volta. Dois aparelhos operarão sob supervisão humana na rota de Barueri, com meta inicial de 500 entregas mensais. Mas a questão central não é velocidade: é acesso. Nos condomínios fechados da região, entregadores precisam parar, se registrar e aguardar liberação — um processo burocrático suficientemente desgastante para que cerca de metade dos motoboys recuse os pedidos. Os drones simplesmente pousam em zonas designadas, sem pedir permissão a ninguém.
Arnaldo Bertolaccini, vice-presidente de logística do iFood, descreve a ambição maior: um modelo hub-and-spoke, com um grande shopping abastecendo vários condomínios ao redor por meio da mesma infraestrutura de drones. O sucesso em Barueri pode abrir novos pontos de pouso e novos mercados em toda a região.
Manoel Coelho, CEO da Speedbird Aero, classifica a rota de Barueri como uma das mais complexas já desenvolvidas pela empresa. O Brasil tem o segundo espaço aéreo mais congestionado do mundo, o que exige rotas fixas e altitudes predeterminadas para cada voo. Um desafio ainda em aberto é a previsão do tempo: sistemas meteorológicos convencionais foram projetados para voos em altitude elevada, não para os microclimas instáveis que os drones enfrentam rente ao solo. A Speedbird desenvolve tecnologia específica para esse fim, ainda em fase de testes.
O que essa expansão revela é uma tecnologia deixando de ser experimento para se tornar infraestrutura. Do Recife a Aracaju, e agora a São Paulo, o iFood acumula aprendizados e reduz variáveis a cada etapa. A pergunta que orienta os próximos passos é direta: quantas outras cidades brasileiras têm os mesmos muros que Barueri tem?
iFood has begun flying meals across São Paulo's Alphaville district using drones, connecting restaurants in the Iguatemi shopping center to a residential complex in Barueri. The operation marks the company's latest expansion of a delivery method it has been testing and refining across Brazil for the past year, one that promises to cut travel time in half while sidestepping the friction that has long plagued ground-based couriers.
The drones themselves are modest machines. Each can carry up to five kilograms—the current regulatory ceiling, though the aircraft are technically capable of handling ten. They cruise at speeds up to fifty kilometers per hour and can cover ten kilometers on a round trip, or twenty-three in a single direction. Two drones will service the Barueri route, operating under the supervision of a human controller who monitors their flight paths and adjusts for conditions. The company expects the route to handle around five hundred deliveries per month, a conservative estimate given that iFood's operation in Aracaju, which began in September after receiving Brazil's first permanent authorization to fly over populated areas, now exceeds one thousand orders monthly.
The problem the drones solve is not primarily speed—though that matters. In Barueri, the real obstacle has been access. Gated communities require delivery workers to stop, register, wait for clearance, and navigate bureaucratic procedures before they can even approach a building. The friction is significant enough that roughly half of iFood's available couriers simply refuse jobs to the area. Drones bypass this entirely. They land on rooftops or designated zones and deposit their cargo without needing anyone's permission to enter. The company says this will not cost consumers extra, and it has committed to ensuring that couriers do not lose income—the time saved on access delays should offset any reduction in individual deliveries to the complex.
Arnaldo Bertolaccini, iFood's vice president of logistics, frames the ambition more broadly. The vision is to create a hub-and-spoke model: one large shopping center with multiple restaurants, surrounded by several residential developments, each served by the same drone infrastructure. Success in Barueri could unlock new landing zones and new customer bases across the region. The company is betting that the model is replicable, that other neighborhoods face the same access bottlenecks, and that drones can become as routine a part of the delivery ecosystem as motorcycles and cars.
Manoel Coelho, CEO of Speedbird Aero, the company that manufactures the drones, describes the Barueri route as among the most complex his team has engineered. Brazil has the world's second-most congested airspace, a fact that shapes every decision about altitude, timing, and routing. Each drone's path is predetermined to ensure consistency and safety. Every flight follows the same corridor at the same height, reducing the cognitive load on the human supervisor and minimizing the risk of collision or deviation.
One remaining challenge is weather prediction. Conventional aircraft rely on meteorological systems designed for high-altitude flight. Drones operate much closer to the ground, where conditions can shift rapidly and unpredictably. Speedbird is developing new technology to forecast weather along the specific routes their aircraft will fly, accounting for the microclimates and turbulence that matter at low altitude. The tool is still in testing, but Coelho notes that the drones have already proven resilient in adverse conditions across multiple countries where they operate.
What emerges from this expansion is a picture of logistics technology maturing in real time. iFood is not experimenting anymore—it is scaling. The company has moved from Recife, where drones helped bridge a gap created by native forest between restaurants and homes, to Aracaju, where it proved the model could handle volume, to now São Paulo, where it must contend with urban complexity and regulatory scrutiny. Each step has refined the operation, reduced the variables, and built confidence that autonomous delivery is not a future concept but a present reality. The question now is whether other cities and neighborhoods will face the same access problems that Barueri does, and whether iFood's infrastructure can be adapted to solve them.
Notable Quotes
The idea is to have a large shopping center with multiple restaurants and several residential complexes around it. Our dream is that this route can unlock new complexes and that we can open new landing zones and serve new orders with the same infrastructure.— Arnaldo Bertolaccini, VP of Logistics, iFood
To fly in Brazil, you need technology, safety, and confidence in the equipment. We started testing in less complex locations in various places around the world. Now we're back to this route, which is undoubtedly the most challenging.— Manoel Coelho, CEO, Speedbird Aero
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a gated community create such a problem for delivery drivers that half of them refuse the work?
It's not the distance or the difficulty of the route itself. It's the bureaucracy. Every time a courier arrives, they have to stop, register with security, wait for approval, sometimes fill out forms. That might add twenty or thirty minutes to a single delivery. When you're paid per delivery, that's lost income.
And the drone just... lands on the roof and leaves?
Essentially, yes. No registration, no waiting, no human interaction required. The package is there. The resident picks it up. The drone goes back. The whole thing takes minutes instead of an hour.
But doesn't that seem like it could create security problems? Anyone could be dropping packages into a building.
That's why the landing zones are predetermined and controlled. The building management knows exactly where the drone will land, when it will land, and what it's carrying. It's actually more predictable than a courier showing up at an unpredictable time.
The company says drivers won't lose money. Do you believe that?
It depends on whether the volume of deliveries to the area actually increases. If more people order because delivery is now faster and more reliable, then yes, drivers could make more money handling more orders. If the volume stays the same, then drivers are just handling fewer individual deliveries to that area, which is a loss.
What's the real ambition here? Is this about speed or about something else?
It's about removing friction from the system. Speed matters, but access matters more. If iFood can prove that drones solve the access problem in Barueri, they can replicate that solution across dozens of similar neighborhoods. That's the real prize—not faster delivery, but delivery to places that were previously unprofitable to serve.
And the weather technology they're developing—why is that so important?
Because drones fly low, close to buildings and obstacles. Weather systems designed for airplanes don't account for the turbulence and wind patterns at that altitude. If you can't predict what the weather will do fifty meters above the ground, you can't safely operate. That's the frontier they're working on now.