MW DoorDash's expansion into restaurant reservations and robots offers new benefits, but risks 'commoditization'

By Bill Peters

As DoorDash moves into new lines of business, delivery services from apps are starting to overlap - but one analyst notes 'good companies run these kinds of experiments'

DoorDash's autonomous delivery vehicle, called Dot, is currently running in the Phoenix metro area.

DoorDash Inc. is rolling out an array of new features including a new autonomous delivery robot and restaurant reservations - a move one analyst on Wednesday said would bring an array of benefits, but risks "commoditization" as services from rival platforms start to overlap.

DoorDash $(DASH)$ announced the expansion on Tuesday, as part of its broader efforts to deepen its presence in local economies.

Along with the delivery robot, called Dot, DoorDash launched tools to allow people to book restaurant reservations, help restaurants with service consistency and assist retailers with managing inventories and handling orders. DoorDash also said it would also allow people to apply to become video creators who would highlight local restaurants.

Ethan Feller, a stock strategist at Zacks Investment Research, said over email that DoorDash's announcement illustrates the way that the delivery app - along with other companies like Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) - has helped turn delivery from a convenience into an expectation. He noted that the new efforts would help strengthen DoorDash's ties with restaurants and other businesses, while turning up the pressure on reservation sites.

But he added that the move raises questions about the company's focus.

"Any time a company branches beyond its core product, it risks diluting focus and potentially moving away from what drives the majority of its revenue," Feller said. "Commoditization is also always a possibility in markets like delivery or reservations, where competitors can offer similar services.

"That said, good companies run these kinds of experiments," he added. "If they work, they can be extremely valuable. If they don't, they can be discarded. The opportunities are asymmetric. Even the biggest companies in the world such as Amazon, Google and Apple have had plenty of failed product bets along the way."

Concerns about "commoditization," at least within the takeout-delivery space, aren't necessarily new. Food-delivery platform Grubhub, during an earnings call in 2019, said that the major players in the space all used roughly the same algorithms and had roughly the same service times.

Grubhub Chief Executive Matt Maloney at the time said that a five-minute difference in service speeds was "negligible for diners." Since then, delivery platforms have tried to deliver more types of items to consumers' doors.

DoorDash has expanded from takeout delivery into delivering groceries and other areas of retail, posing more competition to Instacart $(CART)$. Uber began as a ride-hailing platform, then it began delivering restaurant orders and groceries. In some cities, self-driving delivery carts are already a common site on sidewalks. Amazon and Walmart Inc. $(WMT)$ have become e-commerce and delivery behemoths.

Airbnb $(ABNB)$, meanwhile, overhauled its app this year and announced plans to offer new services like tours from locals, spa treatments and in-home meals. But some analysts wondered about when those new services would actually start to offer a meaningful boost to sales.

Feller said that DoorDash already controls around 60% of the U.S. food-delivery market. But with its stock price up nearly 60% so far this year, he said investors should be "mindful" of the increasingly lofty valuation.

DoorDash's Dot delivery vehicle, which is one-tenth the size of a regular car, is currently running in the Phoenix metro area and can travel up to 20 miles per hour. Feller said the launch of an autonomous delivery robot would pose safety and regulatory challenges; there will be costs to maintain those vehicles and repair them if they get vandalized or damaged by the elements.

"While picking up food at a restaurant seems like simple task for a human, it is a monumentally complex task for a machine," he noted.

-Bill Peters

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October 01, 2025 14:13 ET (18:13 GMT)

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