Robots and Drones Continue Taking Over Food Delivery
Major delivery platforms are racing to deploy fleets of autonomous robots and drones across U.S. cities, promising faster service while cutting costs and emissions.
DoorDash unveiled its most ambitious entry yet: Dot, a three-foot-wide electric robot that can zip along at 20 miles per hour through bike lanes and parking lots. The little red machine - one-tenth the size of a car - is already navigating Greater Phoenix and expects to reach 1.5 million people by year's end.
"After more than 10 billion deliveries, we have data on what works, what breaks and what scales," said Stanley Tang, co-founder and head of DoorDash Labs. "Automation in our business only matters when it can scale in the real world."
DoorDash designed Dot to fill a critical gap. Autonomous cars can't deliver to doorsteps, sidewalk robots are too slow for longer distances, and drones work best for lightweight orders. Dot's battery lasts six to eight hours and can be swapped out for continuous operation.
Meanwhile, Uber Eats is expanding its robot partnership with Shake Shack. After launching sidewalk robots in Los Angeles and Atlanta, they're now deploying Avride robots in Jersey City, N.J. Customers ordering through the app will see a notice when autonomous delivery is available.
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"We're excited to make it even easier for people in Jersey City to get Shake Shack with the help of Avride's delivery robots," said Megan Jensen, global head of autonomous delivery operations at Uber.
The skies are getting busier too. Dave's Hot Chicken partnered with Matternet to launch drone delivery in Northridge, a Los Angeles suburb. The service uses autonomous M2 drones to fly orders directly from kitchen to customer.
"Each day, more than 10 million food deliveries move through our cities in 2-ton cars, adding traffic and pollution," said Andreas Raptopoulos, founder and CEO of Matternet. "Drones will replace millions of those trips - delivering meals faster, cleaner, and with no human contact beyond the restaurant and the customer."
The expansion isn't without challenges. Serve Robotics, which recently entered Chicago with 160 daily active robots, faces its toughest test yet. The Windy City's brutal winters - with average January lows hitting 22 degrees - could strain technology designed in temperate markets like Miami and Los Angeles.
But Serve remains confident. "We've designed our latest Gen3 robot to handle all weather and terrain," the company said. "We welcome the challenges of snow and ice, extreme temperatures and uneven surfaces because that's what it will take to scale our service."
