DoorDash says its new drone delivery service could take flight this year without a buzz — literally.
At a media event hosted at the company’s headquarters on Tuesday, DoorDash unveiled its in-house-designed drone that will launch in Northern California “in the coming months,” Stanley Tang, DoorDash cofounder and chief product officer, said.
Outside, on the company headquarters’ rooftop, DoorDash’s drone sat on a platform with its six propellers spinning. Wind, music, and chatter drowned out any sound of the vehicle.
Harrison Shih, the head of DoorDash Air, told Business Insider that the propellers weren’t spinning fast enough to lift off the podium, but the sound is roughly what people will hear when the device is flying overhead.
“You won’t really hear it,” he said.
DoorDash’s quiet-drone pitch comes as Amazon’s Prime Air drone has drawn complaints from local residents for its incessant buzzing during deliveries. The New York Times reported that the drones have a mosquito-like hum that grows louder as they approach people’s homes.
One customer of Amazon’s Prime Air drone told Business Insider earlier this year that the sound was worth the convenience.
“We’re significantly lighter than the Amazon drone, and we built with acoustics in mind from the ground up,” Shih said when asked about the Times’ report on Amazon’s drones. “Actually, a lot of the design decisions that you see on that drone are built around acoustics.”
A DoorDash spokesperson said the drone weighs under 55 pounds. Amazon has said its drone weighs around 78 pounds.
An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment sent after business hours.
On top of being “incredibly light,” Tang said during the media event that the propellers were designed to be slow-spinning, and the sound is comparable to a “passing car while dropping off.”
DoorDash has said that its drones will handle lightweight deliveries between three and five miles. Tang said that 80% of “typical DoorDash restaurant orders” are light and small enough to be handled by drones.
The company said Chipotle and Popeyes will be its first partners for the drone service.
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