DoorDash launches in-house drone unit — "cleared for takeoff"

Will your next takeout food delivery arrive by air? That's what DoorDash is preparing for.

On Wednesday, DoorDash announced that it had just received Part 135 air carrier certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). As a result of this approval, the company also announced the launch of an in-house drone program called DoorDash Air.

"This certification means that DoorDash is authorized to operate as an air carrier and offer an even more deeply integrated drone delivery experience, opening up new possibilities for local businesses," the company said in a statement.

According to DoorDash, the company is only the eighth drone operator to earn the FAA's Part 135 certification. DoorDash was required to pass a five-stage evaluation process that verified aircraft airworthiness, maintenance programs, and safety procedures.

“We want drone delivery to work for any merchant, anywhere. We're building the full stack to make that possible from the ground infrastructure to the drone itself, and the handoff systems that make it work together seamlessly,” said Head of DoorDash Air Harrison Shih in a blog post. “Advances in hardware, compute, and AI are creating extraordinary new capabilities for local commerce, and becoming a certified air carrier accelerates everything we're building.”

Human Dashers will continue to play a main role within the company, DoorDash says. The company mentioned how Dashers will still fulfill deliveries that drones and other autonomous delivery systems can't handle, such as apartment deliveries and fulfilling deliveries with large orders. 

According to the company, drones fulfilled deliveries in an estimated average of 25 minutes last year. The company says that some locations that took part in its drone partner pilot found their order volume grow by around 30 percent during the program.

DoorDash also has a good idea of which type of deliveries would benefit the most from drones. DoorDash says that 20 percent of DoorDash orders need to be delivered between three to five miles. However, those orders took roughly 25 percent longer to be fulfilled than shorter deliveries. The company says this is because it's more difficult to find Dashers willing to take on mid-range trips. DoorDash hopes that drone deliveries can fulfill these orders, allowing human Dashers to focus on shorter trips, which could maximize their earnings.

Of course, DoorDash wouldn't be the first company to experiment with drone deliveries. Amazon, Alphabet's Wing, and most recently, Walmart have all deployed drone delivery systems. These companies have all touted their delivery drone program; however, there have been some speed bumps along the way.

DoorDash says it's currently "designing and building" its first-party drone program with the company's in-house robotics and autonomy team, DoorDash Labs. The company says that this is "only the beginning" and expects to have further updates about DoorDash Air later this year.