GoTo Foods latest entry in race to make DFW drone delivery capital
By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill
The Dallas/Fort Worth region of Texas, a leading hub for drone-delivery services, recently got a new entry in the race to bring fast food to customers’ doorsteps via UAV.
GoTo Foods, the parent company of several popular restaurant chains, recently announced the launch of drone delivery service in three North Texas markets: Frisco, Fort Worth and Plano. The company is partnering with drone delivery company Wing and DoorDash to provide the last-mile delivery service.
With the new service, customers living in the three cities within about four miles of participating Auntie Anne’s, Jamba, McAlister’s Deli and Schlotzsky’s locations can place an order through the DoorDash app, and have a drone bring them their meal within 20 minutes.
“Drone delivery is one way that GoTo Foods is unlocking innovation with purpose, to expand accessibility and drive frequency,” GoTo Foods Chief Commercial Officer Kieran Donahue said. “GoTo Foods is focused on innovating in ways that are intuitive and seamless – all while staying rooted in the trusted experiences that our brands have created for decades.”
In recent years, the DFW region has become a hotbed for drone delivery services, with companies such as Wing, Zipline and DroneUp operating in the region. Last summer, the FAA gave its first approval to allow simultaneous drone flights by more than one operator flying in the same airspace facilitating the operation of drone deliveries in the area.
Kent Ferguson, head of partnerships at Wing, said the agreement with GoTo Foods is just the latest example of the types of partnerships that Wing is pursuing to expand its drone delivery reach.
“We designed Wing to be as seamless as possible so restaurant operators can focus on what they do best,” he said in an email statement.
Under the partnership agreement, Wing supplies the drones and the hubs, or nests, that house the UAVs. “These hubs often repurpose underutilized real estate to serve as a center of operations for our drones to recharge between orders,” Ferguson said.
Wing’s lightweight, highly automated drones, weighing 11 pounds, are capable of carrying payloads about 2.5 pounds at cruising speeds up to 65 mph. A larger aircraft, which the company expects to put in operation soon, will weigh about 17 pounds and carry about 5-pound payloads.
“They can get from the order point to the customer’s doorstep in as little as 20 minutes, often quicker than traditional last-mile delivery drivers,” Ferguson said.
DoorDash customers in DFW region can order Wing’s drone delivery through the DoorDash app. After receiving the order, the merchant prepares the food, which is then loaded onto a Wing delivery drone, which flies autonomously, at a cruising altitude of between 150 and 200 feet above ground level, to the customer’s home or place of business. Once the UAV arrives at its destination, the drone stops, hovers down to around 23 feet and uses a tether to gently lower the package to the ground.
Ferguson said Wing’s highly automated drones are designed to allow one pilot-in-command (PIC) to supervise many aircraft simultaneously. “Wing’s advanced flight navigation system plans and executes its own routes and our suite of automation tools allows our aircraft to initiate their own recharge cycles, recognize unexpected obstacles at a delivery spot and self-diagnose equipment malfunctions before taking off,” he said. “This technology enables the drones to operate from one mission to the next with no hands-on human intervention.”
In order to conduct its drone deliveries, the company has secured a number of FAA individual waivers and exemptions, including permission to conduct BVLOS flights without a visual observer, he said.
“Wing was the first operator to secure the BVLOS permissions in 2019, leading the industry in commercial drone deliveries. Today, we operate BVLOS flights in North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia,” he said. Wing and Zipline were the first two drone operators to be approved for BVLOS flights in the same airspace using an Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) system, an industry first, he added.
With a range of six miles, the Wing aircraft that will be part of the GoTo Foods partnership are stationed at the Stonebriar Centre and Hulen Mall in the DFW metro area.
“Wing’s delivery drones require little infrastructure and can be staged virtually anywhere to meet the needs of any partner. We select strategic locations to maximize customer and merchant reach, while optimizing for airspace efficiency,” Ferguson said.
Drone deliveries scheduled through DoorDash app
In an email statement, a DoorDash spokesperson said the company was integrating drone delivery into the DoorDash app through its Autonomous Delivery Platform.
“This platform dynamically assigns the most effective delivery mode based on real-time factors like order size, distance and location. That integration allows customers to place and receive drone deliveries as easily as any other order on DoorDash,” the spokesperson said.
DoorDash and Wing first launched drone delivery together in Australia in 2022, and have since expanded the partnership to the U.S., with the service now available in the DFW region, Southwest Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina. In addition to its partnership with Wing, DoorDash offers drone delivery service in partnership with Flytrex in Dallas and with Manna in Finland.
The company is currently piloting additional autonomous deliveries projects in partnership with Wing, Coco, Manna and Flytrex in the greater Los Angeles area, Chicago, DFW, Charlotte, and Helsinki, Finland, with Wolt, a Finnish food delivery company.
“At DoorDash we’re always thinking about innovative ways technology can improve our platform for merchants, customers and Dashers,” the spokesperson said. “We see autonomous delivery as complementary to ground delivery services fulfilled by Dashers — expanding our logistics capabilities by enabling us to support a larger number of deliveries including during peak demand or low Dasher availability.”
DoorDash customers who wish to get the order delivered by drone can look for the drone icon in their app home screen or check their address for drone eligibility at wing.com/get-delivery. Customers, choosing to have their order delivered by drone will not be charged an extra fee although service fees and other fees still apply on their order.
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Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
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