DoorDash Delivers Dot - Its New Autonomous Delivery Robot
How Waymo could have handled the Phoenix floods better, Zoox cars are coming to Washington, D.C., and why New Yorkers want AVs.
It’s just a few days until our first annual Urban Autonomy Summit, presented by Nexar, on October 8th, at Newlab in Brooklyn. We’ll be bringing together some of the most influential voices in AV/mobility for an afternoon of panels and networking.
We’ve got nearly 200 RSVPs and only have a few slots left, but you can still apply to attend here if you’re interested in joining the festivities! And if you’re interested in joining or sponsoring our ‘AV Golf Outing’ the day after on 10/9, please reply and let me know.
Top Stories of the Week
DoorDash unveils Dot, its autonomous robot built to deliver your food (link). The uniquely designed delivery bot, built in-house and capable of reaching speeds up to 20 mph, is already being tested with early access partners around Phoenix. DoorDash says it plans to make it available to the region’s 1.6 million residents by the end of 2025.
I’ve been impressed with DoorDash on a number of fronts over the past few years: profitability, acquisitions, product development, global expansion and more. The company is firing on all cylinders so I was pleasantly surprised to see this announcement, but this isn’t just another sidewalk delivery bot. The Dot can go on streets, bike lanes and sidewalks giving it more flexibility than competitors, and an ODD (operational design domain) similar to Nuro’s old R3. The big little difference here though is that the Dot is much smaller so it will be primarily geared towards delivering smaller items (food, small/urgent packages, etc).
Sidewalk delivery bots are great for high traffic, no parking and short drop-off (1-2 miles) environments but food delivery is time sensitive. And the most common orders are typically fast food restaurants like McDonalds so every second counts with hot food. So having a vehicle that can jump into the street and drive autonomously here and there seems beneficial, and of course it allows for longer distance deliveries.
Read some other good coverage from:
- : DoorDash’s VP of Autonomy Talks Dot Delivery Bot (link).
- : DoorDash Launches The Cutest 20mph Delivery Robot (link).
HNGRY: DoorDash Builds End-To-End Rails For Omnichannel Dining With New Announcements (link).
Zoox self-driving cars are coming to Washington, DC (link). They’ll begin mapping the streets of Washington DC, ahead of the start of testing later this year. DC will be their first Mid-Atlantic testing location.
Cool Rides
‘When was the last time technology made you feel excited like a little kid again? Recently I got back from a business trip in the States, and the ride experience with Waymo blew my mind’ (link).
‘I was expecting nobody in the car. Then the Tesla robotaxi showed up… with a driver’ (link).
‘I feel so much more comfortable with a patient Waymo behind my 5 year old than an impatient distracted human driver’ (link).
AVs/Humans behaving badly
‘Elderly woman tries to stop autonomous vehicle from driving over her sun-drying vegetables on road’ (link). Now that’s an edge case!
Waymo driverless car stopped by Bay Area police during DUI operation (link, no paywall). It is interesting how these negative Waymo stories seem to proliferate - I had several non-AV friends mention this story to me this week. This also sums up the sad state of California’s government in a nutshell:
Current California law does not allow moving violations to be written against driverless cars, since there is no human behind the wheel to hold accountable.
Other Stuff
👀Spotted my first Lucid Gravity in the wild (link). At first, I thought it looked too much like a mini-van, but I have to admit that the design is growing on me - especially the sleek front end that Lucid is known for. The Gravity also seems like a great ridehail vehicle too since it has three rows of seating and lots of cargo space. But at an MSRP of nearly $100,000, I remain skeptical of the business use case - for the uninitiated, this is the model Lucid, Nuro, and Uber are building their upcoming robotaxis on. Uber plans to deploy 20,000 Gravitys on their network but I am not convinced there will be that much demand for a high end AV option (Waymo’s fleet is only 2,000 vehicles right now), especially since the rest of the industry is trending towards cheaper vehicles (Zeekr, Ioniq 5, etc).
YouTube Music now available on Waymo (link). I’m more of a Spotify guy but people tell me that Youtube Music is a great option :)
Self-driving truck company Einride raises $100 million (link). I’m bullish on self-driving trucking for this reason.
Self-driving freight services require less mapping than other technologies as they run on fixed routes between predefined points, mostly on major highways without intersections or pedestrians.
Pony.ai CEO James Peng on the Future of Autonomous Driving (link).
Baidu Eyes Australia, Southeast Asia for Next Robotaxi Expansion (link, no paywall).
‘The Waymo Driver is generalizing well, showing strong performance in Manhattan’ (link).
‘New Yorkers are pretty clear about their views on autonomous vehicles and road safety’ (link).
Waymo, Lyft, Tesla: Who’s behind the wheel of the US robotaxi industry? (link).
Europe’s next mobility leap may be driverless (link) featuring Sascha Meyer of MOIA.
Move Fast and Break Nothing (link, no paywall).
Tesla Is Urging Drowsy Drivers to Use ‘Full Self-Driving’. That Could Go Very Wrong (link, no paywall).
What Waymo could mean for Bostonians with disabilities: independence at their fingertips (link, no paywall). Service animal abuse by passengers and service animal denials by drivers are both big issues in the rideshare world. Uber and Lyft have been sued a number of times over this, and while it is a big benefit to riders with disabilities that Waymo does not discriminate, it’s going to be challenging to adjudicate the passengers who inevitably abuse this law.
Senators call for investigation into Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ after train crossing incidents (link).
There Will Be Waymo Testing In New York City Through 2025 (link).
Waymos Get Stuck In Phoenix Flood, How Could They Do Better? (link, no paywall).
What else we’re reading/listening to
Gad’s Newsletter by
: Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla: Different Approaches and Operational Implications of Self‑Driving Cars (link).Rideshare and Robotaxi Pricing with Ashwini Anburajan, Obi CEO (link). My latest podcast episode with Aswini Anburajan, CEO of Obi, an app that compares real-time prices and pickup times across ride-hailing platforms. We discussed current rideshare pricing trends, from loyalty programs to the differences between human and AV rides. She shared Obi’s global perspective and its tricky relationship with rideshare companies, dug into Waymo’s latest pricing data and customer attitudes toward wait times, and gave her thoughts on how the AV space is shaping up and what growing market fragmentation looks like for riders.
Neat Jobs
Software Quality Operations Specialist at Waymo (link) via Phuong Nguyen.
Senior Manager of Business Development at Nexar (link) via Maya Kaye.
Indirect Procurement Category Manager at Waymo (link) via Jerome Arfeli.
Manager, Compliance Assurance & Automation at DoorDash (link) via Nandita Rao Narla.
Head of Physical Security Operations at Waymo (link) via Ricky Derfus.
Until next week.
-Harry