DoorDash is expanding into restaurant reservations and robot deliveries
[October 01, 2025] By
DEE-ANN DURBIN and MICHAEL LIEDTKE
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — DoorDash is expanding its offerings, adding
restaurant reservations and robot deliveries in some U.S. markets.
The San Francisco-based company, already the largest U.S. delivery
provider, announced its expansion plans Tuesday, saying it wants to
bring even more business to the merchants it works with and stay ahead
of ever-increasing customer demand. DoorDash's total orders jumped 20%
to 761 million in the second quarter of this year.
DoorDash's robots will bring new challenges to the company as it takes
on the responsibility for storing and maintaining the devices. But
DoorDash Co-Founder Stanley Tang said the company needs more delivery
options to help fuel its future growth.
“The shift to autonomy is happening right now, and DoorDash is uniquely
positioned to do something like this,” Tang said Monday during an
interview at the company’s San Francisco headquarters. “We need to find
ways to keep up with the demand. The complexity of the deliveries being
made on our platform is increasing too."
Still, investors appeared lukewarm about the company's plans. DoorDash
shares fell 1% Tuesday.
DoorDash's plans also threaten other delivery and reservation platforms
like OpenTable and Instacart. On Monday, after DoorDash said it would
expand its partnership with Kroger to offer delivery from the grocer’s
2,700 U.S. stores, Instacart's shares fell 10%.
DoorDash said Tuesday that its new “Going Out” tab will let users book
tables at restaurants. Reservations will be offered first in New York
and Miami, with other cities to be added later this year. In cities
without restaurant reservation capabilities, the “Going Out” tab will
let DoorDash customers earn rewards and in-store offers.
DoorDash said its DashPass members – who pay $9.99 for free deliveries
on most orders – will also get extra perks, like the ability to reserve
exclusive tables.
DoorDash signaled its interest in adding reservations with its recent
purchase of SevenRooms, a New York company that makes reservation and
hospitality management software. DoorDash announced the $1.2 billion
purchase in March.
DoorDash said adding reservations and deals helps it deepen its
relationship with restaurants and bring them new patrons. During testing
in San Francisco, the company found that 80% of customers using “Going
Out” visited a restaurant they had never ordered food from before.
DoorDash also said Tuesday it will soon begin providing some deliveries
in the greater Phoenix area with an autonomous robot. The robot, which
was designed by DoorDash and is dubbed Dot, can reach speeds of up to 20
miles per hour and travel on streets, sidewalks and driveways.
[to top of second column] |
Delivery service DoorDash displays its new delivery robots called
Dots on Sept. 29, 2025, at DoorDash headquarters in San Francisco.
(AP Photo/Michael Liedtke)
 DoorDash has spent the last seven
years developing the robot. The company decided to develop its own
after finding that other delivery robots on the market, which are
mostly designed for short runs on college campuses or urban
sidewalks, weren’t capable of operating in the suburban
neighborhoods where DoorDash makes many of its deliveries.
The company said it could also use its own data to optimize the
robot.
“After 10 billion deliveries, we have data on what works, what
breaks and what scales,” said Tang, who leads DoorDash's autonomy
and robotics division.
Dot is bright red and resembles a big baby stroller. It’s 3 feet
wide, 4.5-feet tall and large enough to handle up to six large pizza
boxes or 30 pounds of cargo.
Tang said DoorDash has already made hundreds of successful
deliveries with Dot during the past few months in Tempe and Mesa,
Arizona. If things continue to progress smoothly, DoorDash plans to
bring Dot to more markets across the U.S. as quickly as possible,
Tang said.
DoorDash executives view Dot’s development as the next major step in
an evolution that has already seen the company expand from a
shoestring operation that was making a few restaurant deliveries in
Palo Alto, California, 13 years ago. DoorDash has become a
ubiquitous service that now operates in more than 30 countries.
DoorDash has also been testing drone delivery for several years in
Australia, Texas and North Carolina. Tang said the company is
developing a system that will automatically determine the best mode
of delivery depending on the order and where it's going.
“Our vision is hybrid, human delivery and autonomy working together
to expand access to more people,” Tang said.
___
Durbin reported from Detroit.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
