DoorDash Labs is an internal development team that exists to explore and build automation and robotic solutions that augment our current delivery fleet to be more effective and efficient than human-only solutions.
We believe autonomy that is complementary and additive is the best solution, because deliveries have many discrete components and no autonomous system can succeed without support from a scaled human fleet, like our Dashers
• We believe in using these technologies to support and augment human networks, not replace them.
• We are studying and assessing our current delivery processes, identifying common problems, and building a viable solution for ourselves.
Specific & integrated is the key - we are open to and excited for partnerships as well, but we find that no one externally is building for our use case.
• A lot of solutions are focused on passengers and others are focused on long haul.
• On-demand delivery of goods has mostly focused on the sidewalk, which is not viable commercially.
• Last mile goods delivery has specific design concepts that we are focused on - carrying food, groceries, and other goods is very different than carrying people.
We believe autonomy that is complementary and additive is the best solution, because deliveries have many discrete components and no autonomous system can succeed without support from a scaled human fleet, like our Dashers