DoorDash has received certification to operate its own drone delivery fleet after earning FAA Part 135 air carrier status. The company unveiled DoorDash Air on Wednesday, an in-house program built by its robotics division DoorDash Labs, the same team behind the Dot sidewalk delivery robot.
The FAA certification places DoorDash among just eight drone operators approved for commercial air carrier operations in the United States. The five-stage evaluation process covered aircraft airworthiness, maintenance procedures, and operational safety standards required for flying over communities. DoorDash said its drones are being designed in-house specifically for local commerce, complementing existing partnerships with Wing and Flytrex.
“We want drone delivery to work for any merchant, anywhere,” said Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air. “Advances in hardware, compute, and AI are creating extraordinary new capabilities for local commerce, and becoming a certified air carrier accelerates everything we are building.”
The move adds DoorDash to a competitive field that includes Amazon’s Prime Air, Alphabet-owned Wing, and Zipline. Unlike earlier pilot programs, DoorDash is building an end-to-end logistics layer that combines human couriers, sidewalk robots, autonomous vehicle partners, and drones into a single delivery network for restaurants, grocery stores, and pharmacies.
