DoorDash reveals launch timeframe for delivery drones in Northern California

Food delivery service users may soon have food flying, literally, to their doorstep.

DoorDash unveiled its newest program Wednesday, DoorDash Air, which the company describes as an “end-to-end drone delivery system with infrastructure and delivery orchestration designed to scale for all local businesses.” 

The announcement comes exactly one year after the popular food delivery service unveiled its ground delivery robot Dot.

Trial runs of the drone deliveries will begin in the coming months in Northern California in partnership with national restaurant brands including Chipotle and Popeyes.

The drone delivery program aims to combat the hardest part of autonomous delivery: the first and last ten feet. Picking up an order from a kitchen and laying it safely on the customer’s doorstep are the most challenging steps in the food delivery process, according to DoorDash.

In its trial runs so far, the company has seen average delivery times from restaurant to residence in under five minutes.

80% of today’s typical DoorDash restaurant orders are light and small enough to be carried safely by the aircraft, DoorDash says.

“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,” Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air, wrote in the company’s announcement. 

DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang has been frequently posting about the new delivery method on X. Tang wrote “As a pilot, I can tell you that you wouldn’t build a plane and then ask if it can carry cargo,” addressing the company’s plan in designing from the ground up.

The aircrafts have six slow-spinning propellers and their noise projection is “limited to roughly that of a passing car at delivery height,” the company claims.

This launch follows just over a month after Amazon began trial runs of Amazon Prime Air in Texas. Residents of the test areas complained that the drones make too much noise, saying they sound like a “giant hive of bees.”

The DoorDash drones weigh under 55 pounds, whereas Amazon’s weigh around 78 pounds, according to the companies.

DoorDash has seen an increase in local businesses offering delivery on their app — and customers are showing support.

“As that demand for local commerce continues to grow, offering even more mods of deliveries will help local businesses of all sizes connect with consumers,” they wrote.

DoorDash included remarks from a handful of businesses that already deliver through their service.

“Our fans want their food hot and fast, and we believe DoorDash Air will deliver on that without asking our restaurant teams to change a thing,” wrote James Huang, Chief Digital Officer for Popeyes. “The same crews making our chicken today just hand it off the way they always have and the drone does the rest.”

Along with the new delivery option, the DoorDash app has received updates, allowing customers to see when their orders hit the air.