AI Generated Image
DoorDash is building its own drone delivery business
TechCrunch • • business
Key Points:
- DoorDash has launched DoorDash Air, a new drone delivery business, after obtaining Part 135 air carrier certification from the FAA, enabling legal commercial drone operations in the U.S.
- The company is developing its own custom drones and plans to begin with limited pilot programs involving short-distance flights within the operator’s line of sight, with longer autonomous flights pending FAA approval of Beyond Visual Line of Sight technology.
- DoorDash continues to partner with existing drone delivery companies like Alphabet’s Wing and Flytrex, maintaining collaborations in the U.S. and Australia alongside its in-house drone efforts.
- DoorDash Air is part of DoorDash Labs’ broader autonomous delivery initiatives, which include the sidewalk delivery robot Dot, and is integrated with the company’s Autonomous Delivery Platform software that coordinates deliveries across drones, bots, and human drivers.
- The company emphasizes solving real customer delivery problems by managing the full technology stack—from hardware to routing algorithms—and aims to differentiate itself by simultaneously operating multiple autonomous delivery systems on a unified network.
