DoorDash rolls out food delivery robots in Los Angeles
A robot on wheels could serve up your next meal thanks to a partnership between DoorDash and Coco Robotics that's bringing food delivery robots to Los Angeles sidewalks.
The food delivery service DoorDash announced Thursday that eligible customers in Los Angeles and Chicago can order food through their app to be delivered by a small, box-shaped robot with zero emissions.
Coco Robotics and similar companies such as Serve Robotics and Starship Technologies have been operating food delivery robots in Los Angeles and other cities for several years. DoorDash's international arm Wolt began a partnership with Coco in Helsinki, Finland this year.
'We're excited to expand our partnership with DoorDash, combining Coco's AI robocourier platform with DoorDash's national scale and reach,' Coco Chief Executive Zach Rash said in a statement. 'This collaboration marks an important step forward in reshaping urban delivery in the U.S.'
Coco has a fleet of more than 1,000 delivery robots that are remotely controlled by human operators. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica and was founded in 2020 by two UCLA graduates.
Despite the challenges of navigating busy city sidewalks and crosswalks already shared by pedestrians, Coco robots have completed more than 400,000 deliveries and partnered with hundreds of restaurants. Using delivery robots instead of human drivers can save restaurants up to 50% in profits, according to Coco's website.
Frustrated or skeptical passersby have kicked the bots or intentionally obstructed their path, while the cities of New York and San Francisco have banned them, on and off, because of congestion concerns. Some opponents say the bots take jobs from human workers and contribute to chaotic urban traffic.
DoorDash Labs, the company's robotics and automation arm involved in the Coco partnership, announced a collaboration last year with a drone delivery service called Wing. Wing drones began delivering food in Christiansburg, Va., in March 2024 after launching a pilot program in Australia in 2022.
'Not every delivery needs a two-ton car just to deliver two chicken sandwiches,' Harrison Shih, senior director of DoorDash Labs, said in a statement. 'We believe the future of delivery will be multi-modal, and we're thrilled to partner with Coco to expand sidewalk robot deliveries that complement the Dasher network.'
Coco robots will partner with nearly 600 merchants in Los Angeles through the DoorDash app. The robots' median delivery distance is one mile, according to a company spokesperson.
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