Cruise Automation a subsidiary of General Motors, and DoorDash announced a new partnership to test restaurant and grocery delivery via Cruise’s autonomous vehicles through the DoorDash platform. Testing will begin early this year with an initial focus on the San Francisco market.
“Delivery is a significant opportunity for Cruise as we prepare to commercialize our autonomous vehicle technology,” said Cruise CEO Dan Ammann. “Partnering with DoorDash will provide us with critical learnings.”
DoorDash will use Cruise autonomous vehicles to test and improve the efficiency of getting food and groceries from the delivery provider’s merchants to its customers’ doors.
As part of the program, select DoorDash customers will receive deliveries from restaurants via a Cruise autonomous vehicle. In addition to restaurant meals, the partnership will also explore grocery fulfillment via driverless vehicles with grocers already partnered with DoorDash. DoorDash and Cruise expect to evaluate and develop safety, operational, and other procedures in the pilot.
“We see autonomous vehicles playing a major role in the future of delivery as consumer behaviors continue to shift online, and we are confident Cruise’s leading technology will help us scale to meet growing consumer demand,” said DoorDash CEO Tony Xu.
