DoorDash customers in Los Angeles may soon see their food delivered by one of Serve Robotics ' robots . The two companies announced a multi-year partnership that will see them use autonomous robots for deliveries across America.
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The partnership comes a week after DoorDash unveiled Dot, an autonomous food delivery robot built by the company and initially deployed in the Phoenix area. Unlike Serve’s robots, which operate primarily on sidewalks, Dot can carry food and small packages on streets, bike lanes and sidewalks at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour.
Serve is the latest in a series of new tech partnerships for DoorDash, which has joined forces with companies like robot startup Coco and drone startup Wing. According to Ashu Rege, vice president of autonomy at DoorDash Labs in the company’s robotics and automation division, it’s all part of a larger plan to become a platform for multimodal deliveries.
DoorDash isn’t the first app company to go this route. Uber has partnered with autonomous vehicle companies across its businesses, including ride-hailing, deliveries, and freight, and Serve is one of those companies. Similar to how gig workers work, Serve’s robots will work with both Uber and DoorDash at the same time. But DoorDash is doing something different here: it’s putting its own spin on the game.
Other companies have tried this strategy as well. Uber and Lyft have tried and failed to get both the technology infrastructure and platform up and running for autonomous passenger transportation. And autonomous vehicle startup Nuro started with a vehicle similar to the Dot before realizing that building it is a financial trap.
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All three companies took the scenic route to realizing that it is more cost-effective to focus on their core technology and offerings.
Rege believes DoorDash will be different. The company plans to build the Dot at scale, but Rege declined to provide specific details. DoorDash had its first profitable year in 2024 and reported record profits in the first half of 2025, thanks to a 20% increase in delivery volumes compared to a year earlier. He argues that the company needs more ways to make deliveries if it is to continue serving its growing customer base.
Additionally, Rege believes Dot offers something that other formats don’t. “We felt like there was a gap. On one side, you have sidewalk robots, and on the other side, robo-taxis, which are great for transporting people, but they don’t address the problem of delivering the last 10 feet,” he said. “A burrito is not going to walk to your door by itself. And for merchants, they don’t want to […] go find this robot that’s parked half a block away.”
While sidewalk robots may work well in dense urban environments, Rege said Dot will fill the gap in “dense suburban deliveries” within a three- to five-mile radius. Dot’s ability to cross streets and sidewalks is “a really key part,” he said.
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Of course, a human can do all of this with ease, but DoorDash says it plans to keep its human workforce for more “complex” trips to restaurants, retail, or groceries.
