DoorDash says it’s already testing the robot with early access partners in the Phoenix metropolitan area, and plans to make it available to the region’s 1.6 million residents by the end of 2025.

It might sound odd for a food-delivery app like DoorDash to compete with trillion-dollar companies like Google and Tesla on autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. In San Francisco, Austin, and cities around the country, hailing a robotaxi is already commonplace for many residents. DoorDash argues that a similar reckoning is coming for the food delivery space, and that Dot’s size and design are key.

The stakes are high for this little, cute (terrifying?) robot. Countless startups have flamed out in the AV space, with some even facing penalties and fines when their machines caused harm. Robotaxis have also become a symbol for Silicon Valley’s broader automation push — and a target for public anger. Waymos have been vandalized on city streets, and it’s easy to imagine Dots becoming the next symbol of that tension.

DoorDash unveils Dot at its San Francisco headquarters. (Credit: Maxwell Zeff)

On Monday at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang told reporters that autonomous delivery in suburbs and cities could become a large market. Tang said a key to delivery robots is navigating “the first and last ten feet,” referring to picking up and dropping off deliveries. Sidewalk robots, such as those developed by companies like Serve Robotics, address this challenge of negotiating tight spaces, but they can’t drive on roads or at high speeds like Dot can.

“You don’t always need a full-sized car to deliver a tube of toothpaste or pack of diapers,” said Tang. “Dot is purpose-built for the millions of deliveries we facilitate every day. It is small enough to navigate doorways and driveways, fast enough to maintain food quality, and smart enough to optimize the best routes for delivery.”

Dot has four wheels and stands less than five feet tall and three feet wide. It’s roughly a tenth the size of a car and weighs 350 pounds. Press a button on what can only be described as Dot’s “mouth,” and enough cargo space is revealed to fit six pizza boxes or up to 30 pounds of food. There are various inserts that merchants can put inside of a Dot to meet their needs, including cupholders and coolers.

One of the inserts inside Dot’s cargo space (Credit: DoorDash)

There’s also an LED strip on top of the vehicle to display text, and speakers that can emit a robotic voice. DoorDash says there’s even a microphone on Dot, which could one day be used to facilitate AI-powered conversations between customers and Dot.

Each unit runs on an interchangeable battery that can be charged separately. The company says this was a key design feature to decouple storage and charging of the vehicles.

For navigation, Dot uses eight external cameras, alongside four radar and three lidar sensors to detect obstacles. DoorDash says the cameras are hooked up to a real-time AI model that combines deep learning and search based algorithms to find the best path to customers.

A fleet of Dots (Credit: DoorDash)

The company has spent the last seven years building toward Dot. Back in 2019, DoorDash acquired the AV startup Scotty Labs, and brought on the co-founders of another AV mapping startup, Lvl 5. In 2021, the company hired Ashu Rege, a former executive at the Amazon-owned AV company Zoox, to lead its autonomy division.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Rege says that DoorDash’s early conversations with lawmakers regarding Dot have been positive. He says city and state officials have touted small vehicle delivery as a way to reduce traffic congestion.

Human delivery workers may be less enthusiastic. In a press release, DoorDash says humans will still fulfill a vast majority of their daily orders, while automation will let some “focus more on the high-value orders that require human judgment and care.”

Another hurdle for Dot is safety. Rege says Dot is trained to be deferential to bicyclists and pedestrians, while being large enough to be visible to drivers.

If a Dot runs into trouble on the road, Rege says Dots cannot be remotely operated by humans. DoorDash believes teleoperation isn’t the right approach for Dot, and instead, trains it to simply wait and pull over to the side of the road (though that’s easier said than done in some cases). Rege says a field operator will be dispatched to the Dot’s location in serious circumstances.

In Phoenix, DoorDash has created an ecosystem to support its small fleet of Dots: warehouses to store the robots, charging stations to fill up their batteries, and field operators to clean and rescue them. Rege declined to disclose headcount or costs for this ecosystem.

Much like people have vandalized Waymos, it seems likely that people will try to mess with Dots. DoorDash says it included a camera inside Dot’s cargo space, partially to ensure small humans don’t climb inside. Dot is also light enough to be tipped over by a few people, but Rege says field operators can flip them back upright if that ever happens.

While Dot may look playful, it’s a serious and massive undertaking for DoorDash. The company would surely like to beat Uber and Instacart to market on autonomous delivery vehicles. Dot could reshape DoorDash’s position in the delivery market, but it could also introduce a wide array of new challenges.