A drawing from DoorDash’s patent filing for a delivery robot. | Credit: DoorDash/USPTO
Last week, DoorDash introduced DoorDash Labs, its robotics and automation division that’s been operating since 2018. DoorDash has tested last-mile delivery with a number of robotics companies since 2017, including Cruise, Marble and Starship Technologies. However, none of those solutions seem to have stuck for DoorDash.
The food delivery giant appears to be developing its own autonomous delivery robots.
DoorDash hasn’t publicly revealed any details about its delivery robots, but it has filed several relevant patents with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In May 2019, it filed two patents for an autonomous delivery vehicle. The patents were approved in September and October of 2021 and include diagrams of an autonomous delivery robot.
DoorDash told The Robot Report that patents aren’t necessarily indicators of what’s actually under development. While the robots DoorDash eventually publicly reveals could look and work differently, the patents and diagrams at least give us a glimpse of what DoorDash has in mind.
“DoorDash Labs’ goal is to develop and implement robotics solutions that complement the Dasher community, increase efficiency in our overall network, and result in a more efficient, improved experience for all audiences DoorDash serves,” a Doordash spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We are committed to working closely with safety experts and regulatory stakeholders to implement best practices as we explore the in-house development of automation technologies.”
This drawing shows a side view of what DoorDash’s delivery robot could look like. | DoorDash/USPTO
The patents don’t reveal too much about the specs of the robot. In one patent, DoorDash describes an autonomous vehicle that could carry two to three 22-inch pizza boxes. DoorDash uses the words “various embodiments,” meaning the size and storage capacities could differ going forward. According to the patent, the vehicle could navigate pedestrian pathways, sidewalks, bike lanes and roadways in residential areas. The vehicle could reach speeds between 18-25 mph and weigh between 200-300 lb.
In one patent, DoorDash said its robot could have a sensor that extends upward from the body of the robot at a height of 3-5 ft. DoorDash has filed patents for various other components for an autonomous delivery vehicle, including a virtual vehicle control system and a sensor stack for an automated delivery vehicle.
For comparison, delivery robots from Starship are 22.5 inches tall, weigh 55 lb. and can carry up to 30 lbs. Nuro’s R2 delivery vehicle is much larger than Starship’s robots, offering payload capacity of 419 lbs and maximum speed of 25 MPH.
A drawing of DoorDash’s delivery robot with an open storage compartment. | Credit: DoorDash/USPTO
DoorDash also hired Ashu Rege as DoorDash Labs’ new vice president of autonomy. Rege spent six years at Zoox, an autonomous vehicle company. At Zoox, Rege spent three years as the senior vice president of software engineering. Zoox was founded in 2014, and acquired by Amazon in 2020 for $1.2 billion.
In its announcement of DoorDash Labs, DoorDash said it “identified a gap in existing automation applications,” and it’s looking to fill that gap with its own technology. DoorDash said it is looking for a solution that’s built to scale and is fully integrated with its system.
Many autonomous delivery robots use a last-mile delivery system, where the robot picks up the order from a location between the merchant and customer, and then delivers the food to the customer. DoorDash is looking to automate the middle mile of its deliveries using a hub-to-hub model. In this model, orders would be aggregated in areas with many merchants, like a shopping mall, and the robot would carry the order to a hub closer to customers. A human “Dasher” could then pick up orders from the hub and bring them to the customer.
In DoorDash’s hub-to-hub model, a robot would move between merchant and consumer hubs with deliveries.
No stranger to robotics
DoorDash is no stranger to delivery robots or autonomous vehicles. It’s been testing various robots since 2017, when it first partnered with Starship Technologies. Later in 2017, DoorDash partnered with Marble Robot, to begin testing robot deliveries in San Francisco. Most recently, in 2019, DoorDash partnered with Cruise to test its autonomous cars’ ability to deliver orders in San Francisco.
In August of 2019, DoorDash acquired Scotty Labs, a tele-operations company working on technology that would allow people to remotely control self-driving vehicles.
In February 2021, it acquired Chowbotics, a company that created a robot that assembled custom bowls on-demand in an airtight, refrigerated container. DoorDash said it has been expanding its robotics team with strategic acquisitions, like Chowbotics.
DoorDash Labs is looking to hire autonomy engineers, robotics technicians and software engineers for autonomy platforms. All signs seem to point towards DoorDash rolling out its own autonomous delivery robots.
No wonder their drivers don’t make !@#$ for wages they take the drivers money to invest in driver less alternatives maybe the company will at least thank the they victims when they don’t need them anymore
That is worst job…when people need to work
Wow!!! So us drivers are getting y’all’s *** to kiss huh??? Sounds like a cause for a strike. Sad thing is with the technology way of life is that, machines can never replicate or replace certain beings because the jugheads backing this ******** just can not accept the fact, like machines, they lack our Essence, our energy, most of all our soul. So smart until common sense shoots right past you. Money does not last always, eventually the company will have to keep the junk fixed, we only have to activate our junk
Those robots won’t ever make it to half their 10 mile plus deliveries in time, especially in Wisconsin during winter.
Dude the homeless people in the big cities will just break or steal the robots. Lmao. Personally I’m not worried about this at all. As a door dash driver.
Y’all aren’t understanding if the food is in a delivery mall the robot will pick it up for the dasher and the dasher will deliver it from a hub. Sounds pretty decent to me as I’m always fight traffic to get in to a shopping plaza or mall.
So stupid.. just another way to have a middle man and spend money do u don’t have to pay your dashers. This is a dumb idea and it’s creepy. Lol just have the working human go to the restaurant and pick the food up lol
This robot is not going to last long like humans an cars wow where they get this idea from lol
As long as the existing communication system around here is not advanced enough to clearly define the details of product deliveries from A to B … there will be too many problems to really come up with affordable solutions. I’m an engineer and have delivered food in California to learn and understand most of the problematic details. Let me tell you … there is human intelligence necessary to come up with AI … artificial intelligence. The story above is a good start. But it will take YEARS to understand the main necessary steps! 😀
Good luck through snow and ice during traffic hour
Just mind blowing smh
I have a question…I’ve only been doing this for 4 weeks…DoorDash sent my redcard but I have not activated it…because I don’t want to do those orders…and now I’ve tried to schedule for dashing later and said I needed to activate my card first. Is this a must?
I am working here. no with these robots will i be replaced
I think Doordash will be in the non-enviable position of choosing between its customers demand to low-ball the prices against the largely symbolic role of humans serving food. I would think this DD driver job island I’m standing on will be slowly eroding…