Here's why rapid delivery firm DoorDash should snap up Lyft and hire Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO

According to reports, Uber is in talks with Travis Kalanick, the company's co-founder, to help fund his acquisition of the US subsidiary of a Chinese autonomous vehicle company, Pony.ai, which has permits to operate robot taxis and trucks in the US and China.

Kalanick will run Pony.ai if the deal is completed. The firm went public last year in the United States, raising $260 million in a share sale. Its market capitalisation stands at around $4.5 billion.

Whilst it's an interesting opportunity for both parties, DoorDash acquiring Lyft and bringing in Kalanick as CEO, might be a better option, according to Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive.

In a LinkedIn post, he said: “Lyft has a market cap of $6.7 billion. DoorDash can easily make the acquisition. DoorDash and City Storage Systems, which consists of CloudKitchens, form a strategic partnership. Kalanick owns City Storage Systems. Lyft is utilising partnerships with May Mobility, Mobileye, and Marubeni Corporation, to bring fully autonomous robotaxis to its app by 2026. It's a bold plan. Is it the best plan? I don’t think it is.”

He added: “In addition to acquiring Lyft, DoorDash could also choose to acquire Pony.ai. It could also choose to only acquire Lyft, and partner with OpenAI on autonomous vehicle technology to complement May Mobility, Mobileye, and Marubeni.”

Ladd believes that full self-driving vehicles are going to severely impact DoorDash's core business of food and grocery deliveries. Instead of paying a delivery fee, consumers with autonomous vehicles will dispatch their cars to go pick up the online grocery they ordered and that were fulfilled by DoorDash, and also pick up food from their favourite restaurant. The cars may pick up orders for other customers as well. The cars will then return home.

Ladd argued: “Why does DoorDash want to be a spectator to the greatest technological transformation the world has ever seen? Unless it thinks big and makes a big move, that's exactly what's going to happen.”

“Acquiring Lyft, and hiring Travis Kalanick to be CEO, will transform DoorDash. It won't compete with Uber Eats, it will put Uber Eats out of business. DoorDash won’t compete against Uber, it will become the next Uber. DoorDash CEO Tony Xu has a chance to change the future of DoorDash. The time is now, Tony.”

DoorDash did not respond to our request for comment.

Drone deliveries

DoorDash and Flytrex recently announced the launch of a drone delivery service in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, expanding upon a pilot programme.

Customers in parts of Little Elm and Frisco can now order food from dozens of local and national restaurants, including from Papa Johns King Road location and The Brass Tap, between 8:00am and 9:30pm, with delivery via Flytrex’s autonomous drone fleet.

This marks Flytrex’s first third-party app integration, enabling customers to place orders directly through the DoorDash app. Eligible customers can select drone delivery at checkout, with orders prepared at restaurants and flown to their homes. The service currently reaches over 30,000 households and more than 100,000 residents, with additional sites launching soon.

DoorDash lays claim to the region’s most expansive drone operating hours and the highest payload capacity. Flytrex drones can carry up to 6.6 pounds - the largest in the region - and next-generation models will increase capacity to 8.8 pounds.

“The next phase of drone delivery is all about convenience, driven by expanded capabilities that unlock a broader range of use cases,” said Harrison Shih, Head of Product for DoorDash Labs.

“Larger payloads and longer operating hours allow us to serve more customers, more efficiently, than ever before. By expanding the operational envelope of autonomous delivery, we’re moving closer to making drone delivery a scalable, reliable option for everyday local commerce."

"Drone delivery offers suburban families exactly what they're looking for: speed, affordability, and convenience," said Yariv Bash, CEO and Co-founder at Flytrex. "Your food arrives hot or cold as intended, and you get contactless delivery right to your backyard. For busy families juggling work and activities, it's a game-changer that fits perfectly into your daily routine."