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The company developed the DoorDash Air drones in-house.
DoorDash DoorDash has offered delivery by drone in some markets with the help of partners for several years . Now, the company is expanding on those efforts with its own drone operation. DoorDash said the Federal Aviation Administration has granted it a Part 135 air carrier certification, allowing it to run a commercial drone delivery service. It's one of eight operators to receive that designation so far, alongside the likes of Wing , Amazon's Prime Air and Flytrex.
The DoorDash Labs robotics and autonomy team, which also created the Dot delivery robot , developed the DoorDash Air drones and infrastructure in-house. "We want drone delivery to work for any merchant, anywhere," Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air, said in a statement. "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."
We're cleared for takeoff! 🛫Say hello to DoorDash Air, our in-house drone delivery program. pic.twitter.com/YhDgWOPmts
The company said over 20 percent of DoorDash orders last year were for trips of between three and five miles, but those typically took nearly 25 percent longer to complete than shorter-range deliveries because it takes longer to find someone to take on such jobs. It argues that, by letting drones take on many of these mid-range orders, drivers will be able to focus more "on the orders they often favor: shorter deliveries that can be done quickly, staying near a high concentration of merchants for optimal routing and maximizing their earning potential by getting them to their next order faster."
DoorDash says it designed the drone in the US and "the majority of components" were made in the country. Its Autonomous Delivery Platform will pick the optimal delivery option for every order, such as a human driver, drone or Dot.
The company says it will continue to work with drone partners such as Wing and Flytrex. It told Business Insider it aims to start making commercial deliveries with DoorDash Air drones this fall.
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