DoorDash has won approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to run its own delivery drones, and promptly made clear that most of your food will still arrive by human.
The company unveiled an in-house programme called DoorDash Air on 29 July, built around a custom drone of its own rather than the partners it has leaned on until now.
The permission is real but narrow. DoorDash secured a Part 135 air carrier certification, the licence that lets it fly commercial deliveries, making it the eighth US operator to clear that bar.
What it does not yet have is approval to fly beyond an operator’s line of sight, the clearance that turns a pilot scheme into a network.
That gap is the story beneath the announcement. Without beyond-visual-line-of-sight rights, drones can only make short, supervised hops, which is why, for all the fanfare, DoorDash is candid that people will keep handling the overwhelming majority of orders, and why drone delivery has stayed perennially five years away.
