San Francisco-based food delivery platform DoorDash is eyeing the East Bay city of Concord for its drone delivery pilot program, DoorDash Air. The company had announced the launch three weeks ago in an unspecified area of Northern California.
When — and, more importantly, if — customers can actually take advantage of these drones in San Francisco remains unclear.
Delivery drones, such as the ones being used by DoorDash and Amazon in other parts of the US, are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under a strict set of rules. Special certifications and authorizations must be granted in order for any commercial company to fly drones beyond the operator’s line of sight. On top of that, localities can further restrict drone flight, as has been the case here in San Francisco.
Last year, inspired by DoorDash, the Board of Supervisors passed a set of interim zoning controls restricting commercial drone testing and flight in certain PDR — “production, distribution, and repair” — districts, namely in the Mission, Dogpatch, SoMa, and the Bayview. Under the temporary legislation, which expires mid-2027, any company wishing to use an outdoor PDR space for engineering or development will need to obtain a conditional-use authorization from the Planning Commission.
The drone program was designed and built in-house by DoorDash Labs, the company’s San Francisco-based robotics and automation arm. The team, which also built the company’s Dot autonomous sidewalk delivery robots, is currently testing its drones inside a warehouse on Folsom Street.
That warehouse is the only place DoorDash is allowed to fly its drones, despite the hype it’s been building. A July announcement from the company claimed that “DoorDash is now a certified air carrier authorized by the FAA to commercially operate our own drone delivery service designed specifically for local commerce.”
In its announcement from earlier this month, the company hinted at an upcoming Northern California launch: “When our early-stage pilot deliveries begin, consumers in the service area will be able to order drone delivery from national favorites and local mom-and-pop shops alike,” the company wrote. So far, national chains Chipotle and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, and Concord business Momo N Curry have signed on as DoorDash Air partners.
Eli Scheinholtz, a spokesperson for DoorDash, said he could not comment on when or where exactly in Northern California the company’s drone delivery program would begin, nor could he share information on the status of the drones. Scheinholtz did not respond to Gazetteer SF’s questions about whether DoorDash Air anticipates launching in San Francisco.
One reason for that may be that DoorDash still doesn’t actually have authorization from the FAA. Before DoorDash can begin deliveries, the FAA must review and approve its aircraft and proposed operations, including any needed certification, testing, and validation. The federal green light for commercial drone delivery is called a Part 135 Certification; the company has been granted the certification, but has not been authorized to fly.
The FAA “has not authorized DoorDash to conduct Part 135 commercial package delivery in any U.S. city,” agency spokesperson Rick Breitenfeldt confirmed in an email to Gazetteer. “DoorDash is conducting test flights at its facility but is not conducting commercial flights.”
Additionally, DoorDash has not requested authorization from the city to test its drones outdoors, said Patrick Hannan, a spokesperson for San Francisco Planning & Department of Building Inspection. If and when DoorDash does this, the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to determine whether testing drones in the Folsom Street parking would have negative impacts on the surrounding area.
Hannan did not respond to Gazetteer’s additional questions about how San Francisco is regulating drone flight before publication.
DoorDash is currently in talks with the city of Concord, a suburb northeast of San Francisco, to launch their drone delivery program there, though “nothing has been approved,” said Colleen Awad, a spokesperson for the city of Concord. The three businesses DoorDash has announced partnerships with — Popeyes, Chipotle, and Momo N Curry — are located within about two miles of each other along Clayton Road in Concord.
While San Francisco conducts its study on the impacts of drone deliveries, California is part of a multistate coalition that filed a lawsuit in September challenging the FAA’s environmental evaluation of commercial drone package delivery. (The FAA’s environmental report comes amid a broader push by the agency, spurred by a 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump, to expedite and expand drone operations.)
The coalition pointed to, among other concerns, a lack of attention on densely populated areas, especially congested urban environments where power lines and other structures could impact drone safety. (In Australia, a drone operated by Alphabet-backed Wing once landed on a power line, incinerating itself and leaving thousands without power.)
Major metropolitan areas might not see DoorDash delivery drones for a while, according to a recent NewsNation interview with Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air. When asked whether the company has plans to operate its drones in American downtowns and major cities, Shih said “DoorDash really is the strongest in your standard suburbs,” but that it may enter more metropolitan areas “one day maybe.”
Delivery drones have been rolled out in other areas, to mixed reviews. DoorDash currently contracts Wing for drone deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; and Atlanta, Ga. They partner with Tel Aviv-based Flytrex for Dallas-Fort Worth deliveries as well. Residents of Richardson, Texas, where Amazon has been deploying drones for Prime deliveries since December, say that their neighborhood is now a noisy, disruptive “highway of drones,” and are fighting for increased regulations.
Seventy percent of Americans are concerned that drones may disturb their neighborhoods and might be unsafe, according to a 2024 study by Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation. Additionally, 77 percent want state and local governments to adopt stricter rules than the federal government for regulating drone delivery services.
