DoorDash is launching its own in-house drone delivery service, DoorDash Air, after the FAA certified the company as an air carrier on July 29. The company has previously flown drone orders through partners like Wing and Flytrex (which it'll continue working with), but the Part 135 certificate lets it operate the aircraft itself, which only seven other U.S. companies have been approved to do. For the moment, its certificate only covers the areas named in its FAA operations specifications, so DoorDash Air has city-by-city paperwork ahead of it before drones show up in your neighborhood.
The company wrote:
“Similarly to our ground robot, Dot, we're designing and building our drone program inside DoorDash Labs, our in-house robotics and autonomy team. We're designing an aircraft purpose-built for the gaps we see in local commerce, and it complements the short- and long-range designs our partners are scaling. Our drone is also proudly American-designed and built, with the majority of components made right here in the U.S.”
DoorDash plans to target three-to-five-mile deliveries with its new drone fleet, which account for over 20% of last year's trips and run about 25% slower than short ones because a Dasher is often harder to find, according to the company. (I bet they wouldn't be if DoorDash paid more for those trips, including the drive back as part of the gig. Though paying Dashers doesn't seem like it'll be a problem for much longer.)
DoorDash still has a ways to go before you'll begin seeing branded drones peeking into your windows. In addition to building the drones, it also has to develop the infrastructure needed for the drone to operate, such as a hand-off system for retrieving and delivering the packages and the routing, dispatch, and safety systems that run the airline itself. Other companies have done it though, so I imagine DoorDash won't be far behind.
