Service brings custom aircraft, groundwork, marketplace and automated flying into one seamless experience for local businesses and consumers

DoorDash today unveiled its purpose-built autonomous aircraft powered by DoorDash Air, and outlined plans for an end-to-end drone delivery system with infrastructure and delivery orchestration designed to scale for all local businesses. Pilot drone deliveries will begin in Northern California in partnership with national restaurant brands including Chipotle Mexican Grill and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen®.

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Building from the Ground Up

Our drone delivery system is designed for the hardest part of autonomous delivery: the first and last ten feet. That means picking up an order from a merchant’s kitchen and landing it safely on a consumer’s doorstep.

Rather than start with the aircraft, our team began with the ground infrastructure: the loading systems, handoffs from the kitchen to the aircraft, packaging, and order data needed to make drone delivery reliable, safe and scalable for all local businesses. DoorDash is building an array of loading options designed to fit into existing business operations, making drone delivery feasible for local businesses of all sizes.

“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,” said Harrison Shih, Head of DoorDash Air. “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.”

Before we built the aircraft, we sized the whole system around real DoorDash order data: unique historical insights about what people actually order, how much those orders weigh, and how far it has to travel. We used that to design the aircraft and drone packaging around the constraints that come with flying, including everything from weather to weight and distance. Our data shows about 80% of today's typical DoorDash restaurant orders are light and small enough for the aircraft to carry safely*. Our Autonomous Delivery Platform (ADP) uses smart routing, incorporating factors like weather, flight range, and ground traffic to narrow down further which orders actually make sense to send by air.

The aircraft’s design and dimensions are engineered to fit the communities we'll operate in. With six slow-spinning propellers mounted at the end of the drone’s arms, the aircraft’s cruising noise is limited to roughly that of a passing car at delivery height. Safety is foundational to the aircraft’s design, with a winch designed for smoother pickup and dropoffs, as well as added failsafe systems to safely lower the aircraft to the ground in rare events.

Creating New Opportunities for Merchants and Consumers

DoorDash Air launches into a footprint of local businesses on our platform and consumer demand that already exists. As that demand for local commerce continues to grow, offering even more modes of deliveries will help local businesses of all sizes connect with consumers.

When our early-stage pilot deliveries begin, consumers in the service area will be able to order drone delivery from national favorites and local mom-and-pop shops alike. Restaurants including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, and Momo N Curry are among the first partners to sign on for DoorDash Air.

For those merchants, that means access to a new, reliable delivery mode without added operational complexity, regardless of their size.

“DoorDash Air is another example of how we’re evolving our digital capabilities to give guests more choice and convenience in how they enjoy Chipotle,” said Arlie Sisson, Chief Digital Officer of Chipotle. “No matter how an order reaches our guests, what sets Chipotle apart remains the same: our food is freshly prepared by our teams using real ingredients and the culinary techniques that define our brand.”

“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,” said James Huang, Chief Digital Officer for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. “The same crews making our chicken today just hand it off the way they always have and the drone does the rest.”

“Getting a chance to be one of the first restaurants using drone delivery with DoorDash is something we never could have dreamed of,” said Mohan Khatiwada, owner of Momo N Curry. “We only have a few people working in our front of house, so that means every minute we’re figuring out how to get an order out the door matters that much more. This technology feels like someone finally designed something with a small business like ours in mind.”

Drone deliveries mean faster access to time-sensitive orders for consumers, including everything from restaurant meals for a family dinner to a missing recipe ingredient. Based on estimates from our initial tests, we’ve seen delivery times from the restaurant to the consumer’s door in under five minutes on average**. The app experience has been thoughtfully designed so that consumers can closely follow along with their delivery journey from knowing the order prep time to the exact flight time to when an order is in flight and landing right at their designated delivery spot.

Orchestrating Every Mode with Our Autonomous Delivery Platform

DoorDash Air runs on the same ADP already coordinating Dashers, Dot, and additional autonomous delivery partners across our network. It’s seamlessly integrated with hardware innovations like our SmartScale that are laying the groundwork for more reliable, accurate and efficient handoffs.

The ADP determines, order by order, the fastest and most reliable way to reach a consumer, considering distance, weight, and what's actually in the order, while coordinating kitchen prep time, delivery timing, and routing in real time. DoorDash has already completed hundreds of thousands of lifetime autonomous deliveries across Dot as well as our robot and drone autonomous delivery partners.

Connecting every local merchant with their community will require a logistics network that blends scale and reliability with safety, speed, and efficiency. Orchestrating across Dashers, autonomous robots, and now drones is what allows DoorDash Air to scale as another mode within a much larger system, rather than as a standalone operation.

Moving Forward

DoorDash Air represents the next step in a broader autonomy strategy alongside our third-party autonomous partnerships that began with Dot, our ground delivery robot, and continues to grow through the ADP. We'll have more to share on the ground infrastructure we’re building alongside our merchant partners and as we scale with more businesses across more local communities.

* Based on estimates using U.S. restaurant deliveries of limited distance, size and measurement period.

** Based on a sample of U.S. Marketplace deliveries of limited distance and size. Delivery times are not guaranteed.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events, and such statements in this communication include, but are not limited to, DoorDash’s strategy with respect to multi-modal delivery and expectations regarding the availability, performance, outcomes, and benefits of drone delivery. Expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. For information on potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from any results predicted, please see DoorDash’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, each filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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