DoorDash unveils in-house delivery drone and DoorDash Air system, starting pilot in Northern California

TLDR

• DoorDash has unveiled a self-designed delivery drone and a full delivery system called DoorDash Air, built on the FAA Part 135 air carrier certification the company secured in July.¹
• A pilot program is launching in Northern California with Chipotle, Popeyes, and Momo N Curry as the first restaurant partners.¹
• The six-propeller aircraft is designed around typical restaurant order sizes, with DoorDash saying it can carry roughly 80% of standard orders based on a limited U.S. sample.¹
• Early trials showed average delivery times of under five minutes from restaurant to doorstep, though DoorDash caveats this is based on limited distance and order-size testing.¹

DoorDash has unveiled a self-designed delivery drone paired with a complete restaurant delivery system it is calling DoorDash Air, with a pilot program launching in Northern California.¹ The aircraft uses six propellers that spin slowly and sit away from the aircraft's arms specifically to reduce noise, with DoorDash describing the sound at cruising height as comparable to a passing car.¹² The drone is built around typical restaurant order dimensions, and the company says it can carry about 80% of standard orders based on a limited U.S. sample.¹²

The pilot's first restaurant partners are Chipotle Mexican Grill, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, and Momo N Curry.¹ Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air, said the design started from how people order rather than from the drone itself: "We didn't start with a drone and ask what would fit. We started with what people order."¹ The drone slots into DoorDash's existing Autonomous Delivery Platform, which can route an order to a human Dasher, the company's Dot delivery robot, a drone, or another delivery partner.¹

DoorDash says its marketplace handles roughly 10 million orders a day, and that more than 20% of 2025 orders traveled three to five miles, trips that took nearly 25% longer than shorter deliveries, partly due to delays matching a Dasher. That gap is the use case DoorDash Air is aimed at closing.¹

Why it matters: DoorDash is the first major food-delivery platform to build its own drone rather than relying on a third-party operator like Wing or Zipline, directly competing with Amazon's Prime Air expansion in the same three-to-five-mile delivery niche.