Dot the delivery robot stole all the headlines when it was rolled out by DoorDash last month, and for good reason. The four-wheeled robot is unlike any the delivery industry has seen before, able to navigate both roads and sidewalks at speeds of up to 20 mph and with as many as six large pizzas in tow.
It gives DoorDash an alternative to cars for longer-distance, suburban orders. Dot is designed to be able to navigate pickups and dropoffs more easily than an automobile. At just 3 feet wide, it can even fit through most doorways, for instance.
The fact that DoorDash built Dot in-house makes it all the more notable. It’s a sign that the company, the largest restaurant delivery provider in the U.S., is serious about innovation.
But the cute red robot overshadowed what may have been an even more important announcement from the delivery giant. In conjunction with Dot, it also unveiled its autonomous delivery platform, or ADP. The ADP will use AI to orchestrate what DoorDash sees as the “multi-modal” future of delivery, which includes human couriers and Dot, but also other forms of transportation, such as sidewalk robots and drones.
It’s a recognition of the fact that not all deliveries are created equal. Moving a coffee three blocks is a different sort of challenge than moving six pizzas over 3 miles. One may be better suited for a drone; the other, a human driver, or perhaps a Dot. The ADP is designed to make all of those calls automatically, using the mountains of delivery data that DoorDash has gathered over the course of more than 10 billion deliveries.
“[The ADP] is the umbrella that actually makes all of this happen,” said Ashu Rege, VP of autonomy and head of DoorDash Labs, in an interview. “From the ADP point of view, you can literally go, is it a drone? Is it a Dot? Is it a sidewalk robot? We can truly optimize the experience on all sides.”
This marks a major shift from the way third-party delivery has always operated, which is, essentially: Find the nearest human courier willing to take the job. Whether that job involved a single burrito or a pizza party, it all got loaded into a 2-ton car (or a bike, in very dense markets).
The ADP will allow DoorDash to make logistical decisions with a scalpel. Ideally, that will mean more efficient deliveries, which should translate to lower costs and a better, faster experience for everyone involved. (Note the emphasis on should.)
Not only that, but the company believes a network of robots will also be necessary to help it keep up with soaring demand for delivery. Since the pandemic, DoorDash delivery volume has grown about 20% to 25% every year. “We believe that’s literally the tip of the iceberg in terms of what could be,” Rege said.
Restaurants will also see benefits, Rege said. Fleets of robots and drones could allow them to expand their delivery range and reach more customers. Customers in turn get more selection.
The ADP also gives DoorDash a foundation to build upon in ways you might not expect. For instance, included under the ADP umbrella is the new SmartScale, launched alongside Dot at the company’s Dash Forward product event last month.
The SmartScale is designed to help improve order accuracy inside restaurants. Employees weigh each order before it goes out the door, and the integrated scale can identify whether something is missing. So far, it has reduced errors by 30% on average.
The scale also has implications for DoorDash’s robotic delivery fleet. For instance, by calculating how much an order weighs, the scale can determine whether it would be more appropriate for a drone or a Dot. And because all of these devices are plugged into the ADP, the decision-making is seamless.
“All of them are a connected, unified approach to making the delivery experience perfect,” Rege said.
The SmartScale in action. | Photo courtesy of DoorDash
So, what other automated gadgets might DoorDash have up its sleeve? Rege was not saying. But he did say that the company plans to continue increasing the number of partners it works with so it can keep growing its delivery volume. As if on cue, on Friday, DoorDash announced an integration with Serve Robotics that will bring that company’s sidewalk robots under the ADP’s umbrella.
Robot delivery has made major strides over the past couple of years. But there are still a lot of questions about the concept generally. Can the bots be trusted to navigate obstacles, icy sidewalks and busy streets without human help? They will have to in order to fulfill their great cost-saving potential. There are also regulatory hurdles in each new market that could impede their growth across the country.
DoorDash doesn’t seem to be worried about any of that.
“In terms of reaching more customers, it gets their favorite restaurants and merchants available to them through very many different modalities, and more efficiently,” Rege said. “That’s all going to be, we think, a very exciting future for delivery.”