DoorDash plans to launch drone deliveries in suburban Northern California areas soon, but the company will need additional approval to conduct outdoor testing at its Mission facility under new legislation authored by Supervisor Jackie Fielder.<\/p>\n
DoorDash said it plans to initially launch its drone-powered delivery service in suburban Northern California locations in the coming months, as the San Francisco Business Times reports<\/a>. The company says there are fewer obstacles in those areas for its six-rotor drones.<\/p>\n The aircraft will reportedly lower orders to customers using a winch, and DoorDash says early testing has produced average delivery times of under five minutes from restaurants to customers\u2019 doors. Chipotle and Popeyes are among the first restaurant partners, according to a company news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n DoorDash is currently building the drones at a roughly 40,000-square-foot research and development facility in the Mission, along with other Bay Area facilities. Per the Business Times, DoorDash has not disclosed the exact location of the R&D facility or how many drones it is producing, but Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air<\/a>, said at a launch event Tuesday that the operation is expected to grow as the service expands.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re making enough to get started right now, but absolutely we imagine that we\u2019ll be scaling through 2027 to meet demand,\u201d Shih said.<\/p>\n DoorDash has been pursuing autonomous delivery in the Bay Area for years, including testing small delivery robots on San Francisco sidewalks in 2017<\/a> before the city rejected the idea the following year over concerns that the devices obstructed pedestrians.<\/p>\n The company reportedly leased property at 1960 Folsom Street last August and has applied to change its permitted use from light manufacturing to \u201clab engineering,\u201d according to an environmental review document filed with the San Francisco Planning Department, as the Business Times reports.<\/p>\n The property became the subject of a dispute last year when DoorDash sought to test delivery drones in its parking lot. As SFist reported at the time<\/a>, the Teamsters Local 665 challenged the company\u2019s plans, arguing that the testing did not qualify as laboratory use. The union also cited safety concerns and argued that the technology could eventually replace blue-collar jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n