DoorDash Launches Drone Delivery Business With Its Own Aircraft

DoorDash is expanding deeper into autonomous delivery with a new drone business that includes aircraft developed by the company itself and plans to eventually integrate them into its existing delivery network.

The food and grocery delivery company unveiled the operation, called DoorDash Air, after receiving a Part 135 air carrier certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The certification gives DoorDash regulatory approval to operate a commercial drone delivery service in the United States.

DoorDash has not provided a specific timeline for when its custom drones will begin making deliveries. Initial operations are likely to involve limited pilot programs covering short distances, with aircraft remaining within an operator’s visual line of sight.

To operate autonomous drone deliveries over longer distances, DoorDash would need additional FAA approval for Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations. Other drone delivery companies, including Amazon, Alphabet’s Wing and Zipline, have already received approvals allowing certain BVLOS flights.

DoorDash will continue working with drone partners

Building its own drone operation does not mean DoorDash is abandoning its existing partnerships. The company said it will continue working with Wing and Flytrex on drone delivery services.

DoorDash began working with Wing in Australia in 2022 before expanding the partnership into the United States. By 2024, the companies had introduced drone delivery in U.S. markets including the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

DoorDash Air was developed by DoorDash Labs, the company’s research and development group focused on robotics and autonomous delivery technology.

The same team created Dot, DoorDash’s autonomous sidewalk delivery robot introduced in September 2025. Dot currently operates in several Phoenix-area communities, including Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler, along with Fremont, California.

Drones become part of a broader delivery network.

While building drones and sidewalk robots might appear far removed fromDoorDash’ss traditional business of connecting customers, restaurants and independent delivery drivers, co-founder and Chief Product Officer Stanley Tang says the technologies address the same underlying problem.

Tang said DoorDash did not begin by searching for autonomous technologies to develop. Instead, the company considered which transportation options could solve specific delivery challenges for customers.

Under that strategy, human drivers, drones and sidewalk robots could eventually operate together as different components of the same delivery network.

The company has developed software called the Autonomous Delivery Platform to coordinate those options. The system already works with Dot and human delivery drivers and is expected to incorporate DoorDash Air drones.

Software will decide how orders are delivered

DoorDash’s strategy extends beyond developing physical hardware. The company is also building software capable of determining which transportation method should handle an individual delivery.

Depending on factors such as location, distance and the type of order, the platform could decide in real time whether a human driver, sidewalk robot or drone is the most appropriate option.

DoorDash Labs is therefore working across multiple layers of autonomous delivery, including aircraft and robot hardware, embedded systems, routing algorithms and fleet coordination.

Tang said this full-stack approach differentiates DoorDash from autonomy companies focused on only one part of the technology. By operating human couriers, sidewalk robots and eventually drones through the same network, DoorDash is positioning autonomy as an extension of its existing delivery platform rather than a separate business.

DoorDash Air represents the company’s latest step toward that model. However, regulatory approvals and real-world testing will determine how quickly its own drones become a regular part of food and grocery deliveries in the United States.