Launching the Future of Autonomous Delivery with Cruise Automation

By: Penn Daniel, Strategy & Operations Lead, Special Projects

At DoorDash, we’ve always viewed delivery as the intersection of a math problem and a human problem. Experimentation is in our DNA. That’s why today, we’re pleased to announce our partnership with General Motors’ Cruise Automation, an industry leader in autonomous vehicles. Starting in early 2019, DoorDash and Cruise will test the first food deliveries using autonomous vehicles in San Francisco.

Together with Cruise, we’re looking to answer three primary questions:

• What key technical and infrastructure challenges exist with autonomous delivery?
• How can autonomous delivery positively impact merchants, dashers, and customers?
• Are autonomous vehicles capable of achieving the same quality standards DoorDash customers have come to know and love?

We’re kicking off our pilot in San Francisco, a complex and intricate city where Cruise has been testing vehicles for the past three years. To begin, we’ve built a runner system to move orders from the merchant to the autonomous vehicle. Then, the customer will be notified when the autonomous vehicle is approaching the customer address.

In partnership with Cruise Automation, we look forward to scaling and improving the delivery experience for our merchants, dashers, and customers.

Curious to learn more about the future of last-mile delivery? Join our team to help us decide which new technologies we should pilot next.