The great metropolis of Phoenix continues to be a testing ground for Waymo, and not just on the technical front. The Alphabet-owned company used its early trials and commercialization to experiment with its business model as well, including delivery.
Waymo is known for its robotaxis, but it has tested how its technology could be used for delivery. The company previously used UPS and Uber Eats for pilot programs and devoted significant staff and resources to developing self-driving trucks under its Waymo Via arm, before shutting down that program in 2023 to focus on robotaxi.
Now it looks like Waymo is ready to test the delivery waters through a strategic, multi-year partnership with DoorDash. Waymo has no other active trials, operations or partnerships focused on delivery, according to a company spokesperson.
The partnership will pair DoorDash customers ordering food and groceries in a 315-square-mile area of Phoenix with a self-driving Waymo, the company wrote in a blog post.
Not every DoorDash order will result in a Waymo delivery. Initially, the Waymo delivery service will deliver orders from DashMart — DoorDash’s convenience, grocery and retail stores. The companies said that, over time, more local Phoenix dealers and a wider variety of offerings will be added.
David Richter, vice president of business and corporate development at DoorDash, said the deal with Waymo will give customers a “new and enjoyable experience while advancing our vision of a multimodal autonomous
the future of local trade”.
DoorDash is not new to the space of self-driving technology. The company has partnered with sidewalk delivery robot company Serve Robotics to cover parts of Los Angeles. It also has its own in-house autonomous vehicle technology team that developed and produced an autonomous delivery bot called Dot. The delivery bot, which was unveiled in September, is being tested in the Phoenix area.
However, the deal with Waymo will not include the Dot DoorDash vehicle. Instead, food or groceries will be placed in the trunk of a Waymo vehicle — a driverless Jaguar I-Pace that will navigate itself to the customer. From here, the customer will need to retrieve the items from the trunk through the DoorDash app.
That last step, which requires the customer to get out of the car and grab the delivered items, will be the big test for both companies as they try to determine whether the novelty of getting groceries delivered by an autonomous vehicle outweighs the convenience of a human delivering the items to their door.
