As someone who regrettably orders a lot from DoorDash, I’ve had a lot of issues with drivers getting orders wrong (picking up the wrong bag, delivering to the wrong house, etc) or taking an hour to deliver something (even if I pay for the straight to me option) because they’re working on 2 apps at the same time. I’ve also had heavy smokers deliver, where my food tastes like cigarettes.

It’s been enough of an issue where DoorDash sent me a snarky email about how often I report issues with my order. Essentially accusing me of lying for a discount, which I’ve never done.

If a variable was removed where the restaurant was directly responsible for what’s going in and it knows where to go, that could be a big improvement in some aspects of the experience.

That said, I’m not a fan of these robots taking over sidewalks. I also think the inability for the robot to actually come to the door kills it for me. If I need to go out to the sidewalk to get the food from the bot, I might as well just drive to the restaurant too.

So I think they are attempting to address a real issue I’ve had, but I don’t think it’s the right solution. What worked a lot better was restaurants that employees their own delivery people. So it was the restaurant that was accountable for the whole experience. With the DoorDash model, no one is accountable for anything. It seems like there is little incentive to make sure the customer is actually happy, there are too many independent parties involved in the end-to-end process.

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1shooner 3 hours ago | parent [-]

>regrettably orders a lot from DoorDash

I live in a dense urban area where it's easy to walk to get stuff, so that biases my perception, but why do you order from door dash? Is it a time constraint? Unless I was incapacitated or seriously out of time (which, as you say, Door dash doesn't reliably solve for), I can't imagine not walking within the range of these robots.

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al_borland 2 hours ago | parent [-]

From what I can find, the delivery radius on these things is about 3 miles. While I have a lot of options in that range, the vast majority of those options are a little over a mile away. So it would probably be a 2.5 miles round trip walk. I’ve done it, but it’s not like living in a dense urban area where I can walk outside and have dozens of options (which I’ve had in the past). My allergies prevent me from wanting to make the walk during any season that isn’t winter, as there is a lot of green along the way. I’d also be eating alone at a restaurant in that case, because I don’t want to spend 20 minutes carrying home a bag of food, which in the winter would be cold by the time I get there.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of burnout and depression, so the motivation to leave the house is low. I work from home. The idea of driving just to go pick something up and bring it home is one my brain won’t jive with. If I’m driving somewhere it’s going to be the grocery store. That also means taking the shower I probably didn’t take before work. Since I’m going to the store, if I were to pickup prepared food I’d want it to be on the way home, which limits the options a lot. The area a mile from me with a lot of options is a small suburban downtown, which usually means dealing with a parking structure and then walking, if I wanted to drive there. The hassle factor is high.

If I was in your situation, I would do what you do, and have. I’m just far enough away where it annoying to walk to anything, and driving is equally annoying for such a trivial thing. Then the burnout/depression has me living the hermit life for the most part. Now that I’ve spent so much time inside, it requires a bigger reason to get me out. It’s a problem; I’ve found myself outside looking up at the sky, like I forgot how high it went.

	▲	1shooner 43 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Sorry to hear that. I have all kinds of interesting stuff literally right outside my door, and WFH hermit mode gets me too sometimes. I've come to believe cars are mental illness machines. When I was at that range, I used to bike places, which was kind of it's own activity apart from where I needed to go, but I know there are many places where that would not reduce hassle or stress.
	▲	bluefirebrand an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> I’ve been dealing with a lot of burnout and depression, so the motivation to leave the house is low I know this isn't the point of your post but I hope you have a good support network to help you through this. Wishing you the best.