DoorDash autonomous delivery may be coming to New Mexico — eventually. Representatives of the delivery service app presented their autonomous technology to lawmakers Tuesday, and discussed how they plan to introduce it to the Land of Enchantment.
DoorDash calls it Dot. It’s the company’s bike-lane-using, neighborhood-cruising autonomous personal delivery device. It almost looks like a baby stroller was modelled off a rolly-polly and painted Doordash red — but in a kind-of-cute way, with big round lights giving it a googly-eyed look.
David Obaidi, an operation associate with DoorDash, said it got its name after public testing.
“A lot of people would compare it to a ladybug, but it was missing the dots,” he said. “Dot was just short and sweet, and it stuck with us. And it just looks friendly and cute.”
DoorDash employs more than 40,000 drivers in New Mexico, and Dot is meant to compliment them rather than replace them, Obaidi said. He told lawmakers that drivers generally prefer longer trips because they tend to get better pay and bigger tips.
“So these short distances, anywhere from three to five miles, may get neglected at times,” he said, “or it may take a little longer to get to the customer. At this point, that's where Dot comes in, and that’s the sweet spot.”
Dot is about five feet high, four feet long, and 2.5 half feet wide, and comes in at 350 pounds with a 20 mph max speed — if it determines it’s safe to go that fast.
Dot uses cameras, radar, LiDAR, various sensors and GPS data to navigate. Obaidi said the first phase of moving to a new area is to physically map out every inch of roadway that Dot might use, every sign, every strip on the ground, and every obstacle, to ensure safety.
Kierra Phifer, head of West public policy at DoorDash, said the company is not looking to bring the robots to New Mexico anytime in the near future, but rather they’re trying to lay the groundwork for an introduction down the line.
“Dot is new technology, and we are continuing to learn in our test market,” she said. “We want to deploy in the future, but are not currently set up for operations in Santa Fe or Albuquerque or elsewhere.”
DoorDash officials are proposing a personal delivery device law to standardize regulations and attract investment, and to give the company a base on which to launch the devices.
In the model law they provided lawmakers, and in the final presentation slide, DoorDash officials included language that “cities/towns can’t add extra taxes, fees or rules.”
State Sen. Linda Trujillo (D-Santa Fe) directly pushed back against that stipulation.
“That's a huge red flag, and I can imagine you know the Association of Counties and the Municipal League – they're gonna come and fight that tooth and nail,” she said. “I mean, I can already hear my Santa Fe elected officials saying, ‘Uh, no, we get to regulate.’"
Phifer said DoorDash typically works directly with local governments when preparing to launch delivery devices, and that interests are generally aligned. Moreover, if regulation is included in a potential future law, she said it’s not necessarily a deal breaker.
“So while I hear your concern,” Phifer said, “our attempt is not to sidestep working with local government, rather to allow us to have authority to initiate those conversations in New Mexico.”
Doordash has already introduced the robots in nine other cities, using Dot and other models. There have been some issues. Recently, a Dot robot entered the scene of a SWAT standoff in Arizona and refused to leave.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
