DoorDash launches its own delivery drone, plans Northern California pilot

DoorDash has shown off an autonomous delivery drone of its own design and says it intends to start trial flights in Northern California. The system, called DoorDash Air, would work alongside the company's existing couriers and delivery vehicles, and its first restaurant partners are expected to include Chipotle, Popeyes and Momo N Curry.

The aircraft carries six propellers that turn slowly, an arrangement the company says keeps noise down. DoorDash claims the drone's noise in cruise is roughly what a car passing by would sound like at delivery height. Orders are picked up and dropped off by a winch, and the drone has backup systems intended to bring it down safely if certain parts fail.

Harrison Shih, who leads DoorDash Air, said the company began by looking at what customers order and how local businesses run, and built the system around that. DoorDash puts the share of its restaurant orders that are small and light enough for the drone to carry at about four in five. Its Autonomous Delivery Platform weighs weather, distance, parcel weight and road traffic when deciding which orders the drone can handle. In early testing, the company reported average delivery times of under five minutes.

DoorDash was granted FAA Part 135 air carrier certification in July, which allows it to make commercial drone deliveries. No launch date has been given, and the company has not named the communities that will take part in the Northern California trial. The announcement lands as commercial drone delivery firms keep adding to their networks and the FAA faces a legal challenge over its environmental review of wider drone delivery operations.