DoorDash Wins Approval to Begin Delivering by Drone

美国外卖巨头DoorDash正式拿到FAA（联邦航空管理局）的“通行证”，获准自建无人机送餐网络。这项名为DoorDash Air的新服务将于9月29日在旧金山公布具体上线时间和地点，未来用户点外卖时，系统将根据距离、成本和派送速度，在人类骑手、自动驾驶汽车、地面机器人以及无人机之间自动选择最合适的配送方式——但用户无法指定非要无人机送，全由AI调度决定。DoorDash此前已在达拉斯和夏洛特等地与Wing、Flytrex等公司合作进行了无人机配送测试，一些合作餐厅因此订单量增长了30%。随着FAA自营认证到手，公司可以更灵活地扩展无人机网络。不过，目前每天超过300万单的绝大多数据仍由人类骑手完成，无人机只是补充。整个无人机配送市场正快速增长，预计今年规模50亿美元，到2034年将达210亿美元，亚马逊Prime Air和沃尔玛也已在美国部分地区试水。对于普通消费者来说，未来点外卖可能会更快、更便宜，但具体何时能体验到“无人机从天而降的晚餐”，还要看DoorDash后续的落地节奏。

Dinner by drone? The FAA on Wednesday granted DoorDash approval to operate its own drone service. The company will eventually add the small unmanned aircraft to a food delivery network that already includes human drivers, autonomous vehicles and even rolling robots. Details about the launch of the new program, called DoorDash Air, will be unveiled in San Francisco on Sept. 29. The company is expected to announce when and where service will begin, along with details about the aircraft, ground infrastructure, and how the drone delivery service will integrate into its broader delivery network. To earn the FAA certification, DoorDash was required to obtain approval for its drones’ airworthiness, maintenance programs and safety procedures, the company said. DoorDash already offers drone delivery in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Charlotte, North Carolina, in partnership with drone operators Wing, Flytrex and Manna. Those partnerships will continue, a company representative told CNET. Company co-founder Stanley Tang said some restaurants saw a 30% increase in orders after DoorDash began drone deliveries last year. DoorDash made its first delivery in early 2013 out of the back of co-founder Tony Xu’s Honda Accord. Last year, the company completed more than 3 billion deliveries in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico, reaching more than 56 million consumers. DoorDash dominates the food delivery service over competitors GrubHub and Uber Eats. CNET’s roundup of delivery services praised DoorDash for ease of use and for offering non-food items, such as beauty products, pet supplies and alcohol. Drone delivery is a rapidly growing industry. One forecast shows the market growing from $5 billion this year to $21 billion by 2034, with an annual growth rate of 19.45%. Like DoorDash, competitor GrubHub also has a partnership with a drone company (Dexa) to deliver restaurant food. Wing, Zipline and Flytrex use their own drones to deliver meals from restaurants including Wendy’s, Little Caesars and Jersey Mike’s Subs. Amazon, with its Prime Air, and Walmart also offer drone delivery in certain US markets. No drone by demand Although it may seem novel to order delivery via DoorDash drone — as these folks did — customers won’t necessarily have that choice. Depending on a variety of factors, DoorDash will complete the order either by a human Dasher, a Dot robot, an autonomous car or a drone. A customer won’t be able to choose drone delivery specifically, the company said. DoorDash uses its AI-powered Autonomous Delivery Platform to match customers with delivery methods, depending on factors such as speed, cost and the locations of the customer and merchant. When a customer places an order, the site’s AI finds the best delivery method. Human couriers still handle the vast majority of DoorDash orders — more than 3 million orders per day were delivered by more than 1 million drivers in 2025. “Dashers remain essential to the network, handling the vast majority of our millions of daily deliveries, including orders that autonomy can’t handle, like navigating up apartment buildings and fulfilling large orders,” the company said in a statement. Alex Valdes Ever since being admittedly fascinated by the Cambridge coffee webcam from the 1990s, I've written about VPNs, the NFL, smartphones, living wages, over/unders and everything in between. See full bio The Latest from Alex DoorDash Wins Approval to Begin Delivering by Drone Pixel 11 Models Will Start With 256GB Storage, Report Says Apple Delays Sma