DoorDash, the food delivery giant, will now face barriers in being able to test out its delivery drones in San Francisco’s Mission District after the city’s Board of Supervisors unanimously passed legislation Tuesday requiring prior approval for outdoor laboratory operations in the area.
Supervisor Jackie Fielder said she sponsored the legislation in part to limit DoorDash’s ability to “do what they want, when they want,” particularly regarding its testing of drones at its 1960 Folsom St. office and warehouse in the city’s Production, Distribution, and Repair District, or PDR District.
The PDR District is an area including parts of the Mission, Dogpatch, and Potrero Hill neighborhoods that is zoned to prevent large-scale housing or office developments from popping up in the area. It was zoned in 2009 as a way to help preserve socioeconomic diversity and working-class jobs in the area.
Fielder’s legislation will set up an obstacle for technology and artificial intelligence companies in the PDR District that want to do research and development outdoors, including the flying of drones.
The ordinance will establish temporary restrictions against any laboratory research and development operations conducted outside an enclosed structure in the city’s PDR district, excluding biochemistry, chemistry, and environmental science research.
Drone plan ‘was never a good idea’
The Teamsters Local 665 union was one of several local organizations in support of the restrictions.
“DoorDash testing delivery drones that can fly 150 feet up, 65 miles per hour next to families in an affordable housing complex was never a good idea,” said Tony Delorio, the principal officer of the union, in a statement.
In September, Delorio appealed a ruling by the San Francisco Planning Commission that allowed DoorDash to fly drones in its parking lot because it was classified as “laboratory use.”
During a Board of Appeals hearing on the matter in October, DoorDash representatives said that most of the drone testing would be conducted inside its warehouse space in the Mission District.
Additional testing would also occur in the parking lot in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
“The goal here is not to test flight operations, but how drones interact with ground infrastructure in varying, real-world conditions,” said Jim O’Sullivan, head of drone strategy for DoorDash, during public comment at the meeting.
“Flights would be limited in time and frequency and would stay within the property boundaries. Operations would comply with all FAA regulations, which includes keeping drones within the operator’s line of sight,” O’Sullivan said.
Concerns about job displacement
DoorDash has already launched food delivery drones in parts of Texas, Virginia, and North Carolina.
But Fielder is concerned that DoorDash’s delivery drones could replace working-class jobs like food delivery drivers.
“AI companies have displaced blue collar job spaces in the Mission. My legislation calls for a review and study of new lab use spaces,” Fielder said in a statement on social media. “These tech bros just want to price out immigrant and working-class Latinos out of the Mission forever.”
“These tech bros just want to price out immigrant and working-class Latinos out of the Mission forever.”
Supervisor Jackie Fielder
Her legislation is a way to limit the expansion of technologies and innovation in AI, which she said “is all about destroying jobs.”
DoorDash and other technology companies that want to conduct outdoor research and development will now have to go to the Planning Commission for permission over the next 18 months that the ordinance is in effect.