Delivery platform DoorDash bought a warehouse at 16th and Folsom to test delivery drones, but the Teamsters challenged their permit on zoning grounds. Now the drones will fly, after the SF Board of Appeals shot down the Teamsters' appeal.

Delivery-based tech companies like Amazon have dreamt of using robots to deliver their goods for the better part of ten years. DoorDash, for example, tested out delivery robots on Bay Area sidewalks back in 2017, but SF rejected that idea the following year, saying the little droids clogged up the sidewalks too much for pedestrians.

So DoorDash decided to start experimenting with drone delivery, quite some time ago, as the above video is three years old. Now DoorDash actually does provide drone delivery in a couple markets, like Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte, South Carolina. Personally, I would not want restaurant food that was flown to me at 65 miles per hour and 150 feet above the ground, because it seems like there would be food quality issues there. Though I cannot imagine that “food quality” has ever been a concern for any DoorDash executives.

So in September, we learned that DoorDash bought a Mission District warehouse at 16th and Folsom streets to test out their delivery drones. That 18,400-square-foot site has a large parking lot, and is gated, with most of the drone delivery experiments reportedly scheduled to happen in the outdoor parking lot area.

Cue the San Francisco outrage and protests. DoorDash got SF Planning Department permission to test the drones at the Folsom Street site, though on Wednesday, Mission Local reported that the Teamsters appealed the ruling that allowed delivery drone testing. The warehouse district in question is zoned as a “production, distribution and repair” (PDR) district that also allows for laboratory uses, and the Teamsters argued that outdoor drone testing is not a "laboratory" use.

“This PDR property is meant for blue-collar jobs, but DoorDash is using it to develop technology designed to destroy jobs,” Teamsters principal officer Tony Delorio told Mission Local. “We filed this appeal because teamster members are proud to live and work in the neighborhood, and the Mission is not a laboratory. We refuse to be used as Doordash’s guinea pigs.”

And so the Teamsters challenged the Planning Department's approval by sending the decision to the SF Board of Appeals. But a Chronicle report from later on Wednesday, after that hearing, describes that the Board of Appeals upheld the DoorDash drone testing facility, and denied the Teamsters' appeal.  

For their part, DoorDash is obviously pleased that the Teamsters’ appeal was denied.

“DoorDash is excited to continue contributing to San Francisco’s economic recovery as the global capital of innovation with our new research and development site at 1960 Folsom,” a DoorDash spokesperson said in a statement to Mission Local. “We are deeply invested in the city’s comeback, and eager to continue our testing of autonomous technologies more broadly, including drones, as we explore delivery systems.”  

Related: Video: San Francisco Man Sends Pal a Roll of Toilet Paper Via Drone [SFist]

Image via DoorDash