The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has officially approved DoorDash to launch its own drone delivery service. The company plans to integrate these new unmanned aerial vehicles into its existing delivery network, which currently consists of human drivers, autonomous vehicles, and robots.

Details of the new program, called DoorDash Air, will be shared at an event in San Francisco on September 29th. The company is expected to announce the service’s starting points, the technical specifications of the aircraft to be used, and information about the ground infrastructure at this event.

A New Era in Drone Delivery

To obtain FAA certification, DoorDash completed all necessary approvals regarding the airworthiness of its drone fleet, maintenance schedules, and safety procedures. The company stated that it will continue its existing collaborations with operators such as Wing, Flytrex, and Manna in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte areas.

Company officials, stating that drone deliveries have increased restaurant orders by up to 30%, draw attention to the sectoral growth of this technology. The global drone delivery market is projected to reach a size of $21 billion by 2034.

DoorDash will continue to use its own autonomous delivery platform in this field, which includes giants such as Amazon Prime Air and Walmart. The company automatically selects the delivery route through a system that evaluates factors such as speed, cost, and location.

Automatic Selection and Human Factor

Customers cannot select drone delivery as a specific option when placing an order. DoorDash decides whether the delivery will be made by a human courier, an autonomous vehicle, or a drone based on the information provided by the system.

The company emphasizes that human couriers continue to form the backbone of the network and manage the vast majority of the millions of orders daily. Human drivers play an indispensable role, especially in situations where autonomous systems are challenged, such as accessing apartment buildings or handling large-scale orders.

DoorDash, which completes more than 3 million orders daily with more than 1 million drivers in 2025, continues to keep human power at the center of its delivery operations. How widespread do you think drone delivery services will become in urban logistics in the near future?