DoorDash has unveiled its purpose-built autonomous aircraft as part of a new end-to-end drone delivery system designed to bring aerial deliveries to local businesses.
The San-Francisco-based company said pilot drone deliveries will begin in Northern California, with Chipotle and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen among the first restaurant partners.
The new DoorDash Air system combines its aircraft with ground infrastructure, packaging, merchant handoffs and delivery software designed to make drone delivery work within existing business operations.
Rather than developing the aircraft as a standalone product, DoorDash said it designed the wider system around how local businesses prepare and hand orders to customers. This includes loading systems and infrastructure intended to support businesses of different sizes.
Harrison Shih, Head of DoorDash Air, said: “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.
“Any local business should be able to reach consumers by air. We built the whole system so that they can deliver by air without being disruptive to how they run their business.”
At the centre of the system is DoorDash’s Autonomous Delivery Platform (ADP), which already coordinates Dashers, ground robots and other autonomous delivery partners. The platform determines how an order should reach a customer based on factors including distance, weight, weather, preparation time and traffic.
DoorDash said its analysis of historical order data found that around 80 percent of typical US restaurant orders are light and small enough for its aircraft to carry safely.
The aircraft uses six propellers mounted at the ends of its arms and is designed to operate with cruising noise roughly comparable to a passing car at delivery height. A winch system enables a smoother pickup and dropoff, while additional failsafe systems are intended to lower the aircraft safely in the event of a failure.
Initial testing has produced average restaurant to doorstep delivery times of less than five minutes for a limited sample of orders. Customers will be able to track preparation, flight and landing through the DoorDash app.
For merchants, the company is positioning drone delivery as another option that can operate without major changes to existing kitchen workflows.
This follows the news that DoorDash had received FAA Part 135 air carrier certification, which cleared the way for DoorDash to become the eighth drone operator in the United States.
