DoorDash expands menu of delivery options with custom-built drone
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DoorDash Air's new custom drone. Image: Courtesy of DoorDash
DoorDash is adding another vehicle to its increasingly automated delivery fleet: a drone designed and built in-house.
Why it matters: DoorDash is building a sprawling multimodal delivery network — humans, robots and drones — and using its software to decide which is best for each order.
Driving the news: DoorDash on Tuesday unveiled the aircraft developed for DoorDash Air, its in-house drone delivery service, which will begin pilot deliveries in Northern California with restaurants including Chipotle, Popeyes and Momo N Curry.
- The six-propeller drone was designed around DoorDash's own order data, including how much typical restaurant orders weigh and how far they travel.
Zoom in: DoorDash says about 80% of its U.S. restaurant orders are small and light enough for the aircraft to carry, although factors including distance and weather will further limit which orders qualify.
- In initial tests, flights from restaurants to customers averaged less than five minutes, the company says.
- DoorDash says the aircraft produces about as much cruising noise as a passing car.
"We didn't start with a drone and ask what would fit. We started with what people order and how local businesses actually operate, then built the entire system from there," said Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air.
- Shih tells Axios he thinks speed of drone delivery will encourage people to use DoorDash more often.
- If you're missing a side of ranch dressing, or french fries, for example, the drone can bring it almost instantly, he said.
Zoom out: DoorDash already offers drone delivery through partners including Alphabet's Wing and Flytrex, and those efforts will continue alongside DoorDash Air.
- It's similar to when DoorDash last year unveiled Dot, its own ground delivery robot, to complement sidewalk bots from its partners Serve Robotics and Coco Robotics.
- The connective tissue is DoorDash's Autonomous Delivery Platform, which weighs factors including distance, weight, weather and traffic to determine whether an order should go by human Dasher, robot or drone.
State of play: DoorDash says the toughest problem isn't necessarily flying the drone — it's getting orders seamlessly from busy restaurant kitchens into the air and then onto customers' doorsteps.
- The company designed loading systems, packaging and a winch-based pickup and drop-off system aimed at minimizing extra work for restaurant employees.
The bottom line: DoorDash's bet isn't on any single robot or drone. It's that the delivery network of the future will use all of them — and DoorDash will decide which one is assigned to bring your dinner.
