DoorDash and Waymo launch autonomous delivery service in Phoenix
108 comments
·October 16, 2025tylergetsay
parhamn
I'm surprised that's not illegal, and I think states will pass laws to fix this.
In my area, an &Pizza is $12 on their App, $19 on Doordash (delivery or pickup). A Chipotle burrito is $9.50 vs $12.35 on doordash delivery (plus every addon is a $1 more expensive).
ripply
It appears inexpensive because raising prices is the only visibility you have into what the restaurant is paying these services for their order flows (~10-30%).
Reubend
I really want to see how they figure out the actual delivery of the food.
Obviously the cars can drive themselves on public streets, but how do you go up to someone's house and put a burger on their doorstep?
codyklimdev
I have to assume rather than solving that problem the car will park on the curb and people will be expected to walk down and get it
cudgy
People will love that when it’s raining or in snow. What about in cities where you can’t even find parking? Or you live on the 30th floor of an apartment complex? Lol these companies are so stupid.
JumpCrisscross
> What about in cities where you can’t even find parking? Or you live on the 30th floor of an apartment complex? Lol these companies are so stupid
Do you think these drivers currently run around with two to a car, one to keep the engine running while they go around the block while the other goes upstairs?
11thEarlOfMar
Spent last week in Phoenix, rode Waymo a dozen times. Autonomous taxis are the future. Don't have to tip, don't have to worry about pissing off the driver if I'm only going a few blocks. Price is reasonable, seems less than Uber or a standard taxi.
Question is how many humans will forgo owning a car altogether once autonomous vehicles are ubiquitous.
whatever1
You can still tip the shareholders. Like DoorDash did until it got caught.
austinpena
Or Like Dave App or Chime.
Fun fact about Dave App's tipping. If you bring the value to zero you saw an animation of a kid's food being taken away from them.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/11/...
xnx
> The prices will be set as high as the supply and demand curve allows. Considering that they're the only autonomous car provider in operation, that curve will not be consumer-friendly.
Or go from being an N car household to an N-1 car household.
crazygringo
When autonomous grocery delivery becomes common, that's going to be huge for people without cars.
Obviously you can already get delivery from Whole Foods, FreshDirect, etc., but it's expensive due to the drivers.
And public transport and bikeshares are great for transporting you, but not for trying to carry four or six bags of groceries along with you.
Zambyte
If people were legally allowed to live near grocery stores, they wouldn't feel the need to carry four to six bags of groceries along with them.
cph123
Just for a bit of comparison... I'm in the UK and don't drive. It is a 10-min walk to a big Tesco superstore, which is really convenient. It is on my commute too (which I also walk, Uber if its raining heavily).
JumpCrisscross
> If people were legally allowed to live near grocery stores
My rural grocery store is 1.9 mi away. I tend to shop a few times a week, and only for what I need.
GoatInGrey
How many bags is "only for what I need" and how large is your household?
CaptainOfCoit
> If people were legally allowed to live near grocery stores
What are you talking about? What backwaters country is this? In many places in the world, people live literally on top of grocery stores, such law would be ridiculed until the law makers have to socially isolate themselves if they tried to come up with something so stupid.
afavour
I assume OP is talking about US zoning laws which separate residential zones from commercial ones.
Zambyte
The US, which is where Phoenix is. And yes, my point is that we (in the US) should have walkable (and bikeable) cities, like much of the rest of the world.
arrosenberg
They are talking about US suburbs. For example, the house I grew up in is over a mile to the nearest grocery and you have to cross two large intersections on the way.
piperswe
My grocery store is 3 miles (~5km) away with nearly zero sidewalks, and I live in the capital city of my state. America is a hellscape in that respect.
grim_io
Bless your non-merican heart :_)
Philip-J-Fry
The solution is walkable towns/cities. Not deliveries hahaha.
electriclove
Sure, how has that worked over the past fifty years? Let’s try deliveries now and see if that helps
ItsHarper
It mostly hasn't worked in the US because cities mostly haven't been doing it. It seems to work great in other places.
Zambyte
Walkable cities have been working great since the dawn of cities. They continue to work fine where they are allowed to exist.
bamboozled
Works completely perfectly in Japan.
boringg
Grocery shopping done by task rabbits / etc leaves things to be desired. Quality of choices on things. Maybe its good for staples and saving you time there.
cudgy
“… but it's expensive due to the drivers.“
Really? Drivers only get paid 2 to 3 dollars per delivery from DoorDash and UberEats. These companies are predatory and pay the drivers less than it cost the drivers to deliver. So now these companies will assume all the costs instead of passing the cost down to the drivers? How does that make them more profitable? Maybe there’s some DoorDash or Uber eaters here that can explain my confusion.
trenchpilgrim
Right, unless the drivers are using ebikes or scooters, they're paying more in vehicle maintenance and gas than they're making in fees.
cudgy
Don’t forget depreciation of the vehicle and the risk of an accident as well.
Why would DoorDash want to assume all that responsibility when they have such a good legal scam against all their drivers right now? I call it a scam because DoorDash claims to not be taking the tips of drivers, but given the puny payouts per delivery the drivers lose money and time without the tips, so how can they claim they’re not taking the tips.
xnx
This is a great step in increasing the utilization of Waymo vehicles. Ideally Waymo's would be operating continuously doing useful work and reducing the number of dead-head legs.
coffeebeqn
Pull in to the Waymo after work, eat someone’s dinner while you’re stuck in traffic.. I like it
poetril
I live in a city that has had Waymo's (via Uber) for a while now and I have done a complete 180 on them. Not only are they usually cheaper than a traditional Uber, but they drive far more defensively, and don't come with the social baggage associated with a traditional Uber either (tipping, small talk).
mostlysimilar
> Not only are they usually cheaper than a traditional Uber
Enjoy it while it lasts. Uber/Lyft were far cheaper than other options when they launched until they put everything else out of business, then jacked up the price.
poetril
That's been my attitude as well. I'm not convinced they'll stay cheaper for long, and when I say "cheaper" its marginal. Cost of the ride is the similar, but it seems there is no tip built into the price yet.
trenchpilgrim
Many of my female friends have had bad experiences with ride share drivers, so I think there's a strong market demand.
boringg
Its funny because when ride sharing first came out -- everyone had a great experience for the most part (early adopters/risk takers). Then the long tail (and VC growth money disappeared) came around and the pay got worse, job was a grind and the quality tanked.
I don't doubt that we will have the same thing with all these new options. Maybe the social baggage won't be there but there will be weird new things that pop up...
JumpCrisscross
> the long tail (and VC growth money disappeared) came around and the pay got worse, job was a grind and the quality tanked
As well as the prices, wait times and ubiquity.
I’m not saying it’s a panacea. But I don’t think most people want to go back to when Uber was only black cars.
udev4096
Gotta love capitalism. How it makes us less human every day, without us even noticing
JumpCrisscross
> How it makes us less human
Fewer horses, too!
There is nothing natural about driving a car. Nothing democratic about a driver in front ferrying one or two in the back, both knowing each will rate the other, one knowing they are working for a tip, all while managing a fleet of apps whose owners run datacenters to rip them off.
Human-driven cars were a deadly necessity. But like lead pipes and child labour, we’re better off past it.
darkwater
90% of what you said still relates to capitalism, more specifically surveillance capitalism.
daedrdev
Yeah our humanity relies on worrying about if your uber driver might be a reckless driver or harass you. Driving is a means to an end, self driving cars will one day be cheaper better and safer which is a boon to all consumers at the expense of the comparatively few drivers
esafak
Do you miss asking the switchboard operator to connect your call?
People are trying to get from one place to another, not have a social experience. If they could teleport themselves they would.
999900000999
It's really complicated. Because even though there might be a bit of friction between you and that rideshare driver, ride-sharing keeps a lot of people off the streets.
If this technology really takes off in the next 5 to 10 years, we're going to see a lot of people without the employer of last resort. Eventually gig work might disappear completely. In a lot of cities you'll see people on electric bikes or scooters delivering food. If that's completely automated, sure it'll be a lot quicker and faster, but what's going to happen to people who depend on these jobs.
I don't think our economic system is ready for this. And I'm not talking about any particular country either, it's going to be a worldwide issue.
mabedan
Humans are quite bad at a lot of primarily human tasks... I'm grateful every time I don't have to deal with a secretary behind the phone, bank teller, travel agent, etc thanks to all these functionalities having become automated. One exception was ordering food in Japan at some restaurants which was done on iPads and food was being delivered by robots, because I actually really enjoyed interacting with the delightful and polite people over there. I cannot say the same about people in where I live.
null
GoatInGrey
The reason it's illegal to build a small grocery store near where people live (so they don't have to spent so much time and money acquiring groceries) has the complete opposite to do with capitalism.
whatever1
Does it still cost an arm and a leg to order though ?
barbazoo
Should presumably get cheaper now that there’s fewer humans in the loop. But from looking at their prices I’m always assuming it’s meant for affluent people paying a premium to save time and effort so maybe it doesn’t need to be cheaper.
hypeatei
> Should presumably get cheaper now that there’s fewer humans in the loop
They barely pay the humans in the loop now, apparently. I don't see them lowering costs because of this but I guess we'll see.
GoatInGrey
The prices will be set as high as the supply and demand curve allows. Considering that they're the only autonomous car provider in operation, that curve will not be consumer-friendly.
xnx
> The prices will be set as high as the supply and demand curve allows.
Absolutely
> Considering that they're the only autonomous car provider in operation, that curve will not be consumer-friendly.
Waymo+Doordash also competes against non-autonomous delivery.
ge96
That's the thing though it doesn't go to the humans as a driver
That's why drivers try to take you off the platform and pay in cash/venmo
reaperducer
Should presumably get cheaper now that there’s fewer humans in the loop.
It seems more likely that they'll keep the prices as they are and make some excuse about "shareholder value."
They've already acclimated two entire generations to paying crazy amounts for food delivery. Why would they start charging less?
Until there is competition, they'll keep feeding off of the fatted calf. And completion is likely a decade or more away.
mouse_
It probably costs more
sh1mmer
It would be interesting to see if this could be combined with those little sidewalk bots to do the last mile, effectively having the Waymos act like buses for the bots.
sureglymop
Disclaimer: European position incoming.
Food delivery is something I truly have never understood. I have very rarely been in a situation where I was thinking about food and couldn't think of any nearby restaurants within walking distance (~30 minutes on foot). Why would I order if I could just walk, which is also more healthy anyway? Even if I was extremely busy, if I have time to eat I also have the time to get the food.
JumpCrisscross
> Food delivery is something I truly have never understood
Cool? I’ve never quite gotten bumblebees.
Meanwhile, they continue to fly and apparently burrow. And Europeans buy tens of billions of dollars of food delivery services [1].
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/europe-online-food-delivery-m...
seneca
Interesting trade-offs for a customer. No more expectation to tip or dealing with drivers potentially running scams. On the other side, I assume you now need to go unload the delivery from the car yourself, a much worse experience for apartment dwellers or the disabled.
Either way, we're going to see a lot more of this. More and more of the gig economy being automated away.
lossolo
Autonomous delivery by vehicles works pretty well in China already, it should work in the US too.
DoorDash appears very inexpensive when you have their DashPass product, however ive notice that basically every food service business will raise their menu prices, and grocery stores will restrict which items that allow you to buy.
This is really interesting because if you have autonmous drivers, DoorDash doesnt really have a lever to lower prices except removing tipping.