[AutonomousVehicles] doordash teams up with waymo for autonomous delivery

[Cornelius Butler]

Hi Everyone,
Door Dash is teaming up with waymo to do autonomous food delivery. Here is
article link and text.

Article Link:
https://www.theverge.com/news/800455/waymo-doordash-autonomous-food-delivery-phoenix

Article Text:
DoorDash will use Waymo’s robotaxis for delivery in Phoenix

Andrew J. Hawkins
 is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs,
public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York
Daily News and City & State.

Customers will have to come down to the curb to retrieve their orders from
the driverless car’s trunk.

Oct 16, 2025, 9:00 AM EDT


A Waymo autonomous self-driving Jaguar electric vehicle is seen in Tempe,
Arizona, on the outskirts of Phoenix, on September 15, 2025. (Photo by
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Andrew J. Hawkins


is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs,
public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York
Daily News and City & State.

DoorDash customers in Phoenix may soon have their delivery order brought to
them by an autonomous Waymo vehicle. The two companies announced a
partnership today that will bring Waymo’s driverless Jaguar SUVs into the
DoorDash delivery fleet.

It’s another example of delivery companies like DoorDash trying to slash
costs associated with its human workforce by bringing more autonomous
delivery onto its platform. Last month, DoorDash unveiled its own sidewalk
robot, Dot, which it is deploying as part of a pilot in Phoenix. The
company is also working with other sidewalk robot operators, like Serve
Robotics in Los Angeles. Uber Eats also works with Serve and several other
robot companies for its delivery business.

But Waymo’s autonomous vehicles are a different breed of robot. For one,
they operate on the road, not the sidewalk, and theoretically that means
they could bring an order to a customer faster than a sidewalk robot
(traffic notwithstanding).

Waymo will start out by delivering orders from DoorDash’s DashMart
convenience, grocery, and retail store in Phoenix, with plans to add more
restaurants, retail, and grocery stores over time. DoorDash customers who
order items from DashMart may be matched with a Waymo vehicle as their
delivery vehicle. Once it arrives, customers can use their DoorDash app to
unlock the vehicle’s trunk to retrieve their order.

It remains to be seen how customers will react. No driver means no one to
ring your doorbell or trudge up four flights of stairs to hand over your
pad thai. All communication about the order will happen through the app.
Customers may or may not appreciate having to walk down to the street to
retrieve their orders. Other companies have tried this model, and it’s been
a mixed bag.

This won’t be the first time that an autonomous Waymo vehicle brought
someone their dinner. The company teamed up with Uber Eats last year, also
in Phoenix, though that partnership has since concluded.

Of course, Waymo once aspired to launch its own delivery business. The
company made deals with UPS, Wayfair, JB Hunt, and Uber in the hopes of
applying its autonomous driving technology to world of last mile delivery
and long-haul trucking. But Waymo eventually hit the brakes on its delivery
business in order to focus its resources on its robotaxis.

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Andrew J. Hawkins
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