DoorDash is shaking things up in Los Angeles and Chicago by rolling out robot delivery services, thanks to a cool partnership with Coco Robotics. Now, lucky customers can get their orders delivered right to their doorstep (or, more accurately, the sidewalk) from over 600 local spots. It’s a big leap forward in DoorDash’s plan to mix up how deliveries get done.
This isn’t DoorDash and Coco’s first rodeo. Over in Helsinki, their robots have been zipping around making deliveries under DoorDash’s international wing, Wolt, for a while now. They’ve already knocked out over 100,000 deliveries in the testing phase—pretty impressive, right? Bringing this tech to the U.S. is all about cutting down on emissions and making deliveries smoother and faster.
Harrison Shih, the big brain at DoorDash Labs, put it perfectly: “Do we really need a massive car to deliver a couple of chicken sandwiches?” (Spoiler: no.) This robot rollout is just one piece of DoorDash’s bigger puzzle to blend human couriers, drones, and robots, keeping up with demand without wrecking the planet or the budget.
DoorDash isn’t alone in this robot race. Grubhub and Uber Eats are also dabbling in autonomous deliveries, proving the whole industry is betting big on tech to keep customers happy and operations tight. It’s a wild time for food delivery, and honestly, we’re here for it.