Doordash is expanding to restaurant reservations and robot delivery

Doordash is expanding its offering, adding restaurant reservations and robot delivery in select US markets.

The San Francisco-based company already has the largest delivery provider in the US announced plans for expansion on Tuesday. Doordash’s total orders rose from 20% to 761 million times in the second quarter of this year.

Doordash’s robots are responsible for storing and maintaining devices, bringing new challenges to the company. However, Doordash co-founder Stanley Tang said the company needs more delivery options to help it grow in the future.

“The transition to autonomy is happening now, and Doordash is being set up on its own to do something like this,” Tang said in an interview at San Francisco headquarters on Monday. “We need to find ways to meet demand. The complexity of delivery that is being made on the platform is also increasing.”

Still, investors seemed warmly about the company’s plans. Doordash shares fell 1% on Tuesday.

Doordash’s plans are also threatening other delivery and booking platforms such as Opentable and Instacart. Instacart shares fell 10% on Monday after Doordash said it would expand its partnership with Kroger to provide delivery from 2,700 US stores in the grocery store.

Doordash said Tuesday that the new “Going Out” tab will allow users to reserve tables at restaurants. Bookings will first be available in New York and Miami, with other cities expected to be added later this year. In cities with no restaurant reservation capabilities, the Going Out tab allows Doordash customers to earn rewards and in-store offers.

Doordash said Dash Pass members, who pay $9.99 for free delivery on most orders, will get additional perks, including the ability to book exclusive tables.

Doordash expressed interest in adding reservations with a recent purchase from Severrooms, a New York company that manufactures reservations and hospitality management software. Doordash announced its $1.2 billion purchase in March.

Doordash said adding reservations and deals will help deepen relationships with restaurants and bring new patrons. During testing in San Francisco, the company discovered that 80% of customers using “out-of-the-go” have visited restaurants that have never ordered food before.

Doordash also said Tuesday that it will soon begin offering several delivery with autonomous robots in the Phoenix area. Designed by Doordash, a robot called DOT can reach speeds up to 20 mph and travel on the streets, sidewalks and driveways.

Doordash has spent the past seven years developing robots. The company decided to develop its own development after discovering that other delivery robots, primarily designed for short periods on university campuses and urban sidewalks, could not operate in suburban areas where Doordash makes many deliveries.

The company said it could use its own data to optimize the robot.

“After 10 billion deliveries, there’s data on what works, what breaks, what measures,” said Tang, who heads Doordash’s autonomy and robotics division.

The dots are bright red and resemble a large stroller. It’s 3 feet wide, 4.5 feet tall, big enough to handle up to six large pizza boxes or 30 pound cargo.

Tang said Doordash has already made hundreds of successful delivery in Tempe and Mesa, Arizona over the past few months. If things continue to go smoothly, Doordash plans to bring DOT to the US-wide market as quickly as possible, Tang said.

Doordash executives see Dot’s development as the next major step in evolution that they have already seen expand from shoelaces operations, which had delivered several restaurant deliveries in Palo Alto, California 13 years ago. Doordash is a ubiquitous service currently operated in over 30 countries.

Doordash has been testing drone delivery for several years in Australia, Texas and North Carolina. Tang said the company is developing a system that automatically determines the best delivery mode depending on the order and where it is headed.

“Our vision is hybrid, human delivery and autonomy to increase access to more people,” Tang says.

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