Uber uses drones to advertise in Mexico City traffic
Uber is targeting drivers stuck in traffic in Mexico City with a swarm of advertising drones. The drones hold signs with statements such as "The city would be for you, not 5.5 million cars" and fly in front of cars stuck in traffic. Another alludes to the city's smog saying: "Driving by yourself? This is why you can never see the volcanoes." Mexico City is the car-hailing service's busiest city and the the ad campaign has been hailed by The Verge as the "future of advertising".

A few months ago, drivers stuck in Mexico City traffic were greeted with a strange sight: drones carrying signs advertising UberPool. “The city would be for you, not 5.5 million cars,” one drone’s sign read. “Driving by yourself? This is why you can never see the volcanoes,” another read, a reference to the smog that obscures the mountains surrounding the city.

A spokesperson for Uber confirmed that drones were used to advertise its carpooling service in Mexico City, but that the company has no plans to replicate the strategy in other markets. In other words, this was a one-time thing.

Or was it? As PopSci points out, Uber would need to obtain a federal waiver, as well as jump through various other bureaucratic hoops, to get permission to fly its ad-drones over drivers stuck on the 405 in Long Beach, or the BQE in New York City. That said, as long as the ad is “securely attached to the small unmanned aircraft” and is flown over human beings ”inside a stationary vehicle that can provide reasonable protection from a falling small unmanned aircraft,” the Federal Aviation Administration says ad-drones would be okay under federal law.