DoorDash, GM Team On Delivery Tech

General Motors’ self-driving car, Cruise, and the food delivery company DoorDash have joined forces to potentially bring unmanned food and grocery delivery to the masses, according to a report from CNBC. The program is scheduled to begin testing in early 2019 in the San Francisco area.

“Delivery is a significant opportunity for Cruise as we prepare to commercialize our autonomous vehicle technology and transform transportation,” Cruise CEO Dan Ammann said in a statement. “Partnering with DoorDash will provide us with critical learnings as we further our mission to deliver technology that makes people’s lives better and more convenient.”

GM, which was founded in 1908, has been investing heavily in self-driving technology, according to a report in VentureBeat. In 2016, GM bought Cruise Automation – a startup that developed an autopilot system for existing cars – for more than $1 billion. Last year, the company announced it was working on a driverless car with no steering wheel or pedals, with plans to launch the vehicle in 2019.

The car company also invested $100 million into new factories for building driverless cars, and Honda put another $2 billion into Cruise for a 5.7 percent stake.

DoorDash, for its part, launched a delivery system using Marble’s autonomous robots last year. The company received $535 million earlier this year from Sequoia, SoftBank and others.

This rapid growth means the food delivery company is experiencing 250 percent year-over-year growth, and it’s now the fastest growing logistics platform in the United States. Since last January, the company’s geographic footprint has nearly doubled to more than 1,000 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

Also, DoorDash recently announced partnerships with Chipotle, IHOP, Red Lobster and White Castle, and signed an exclusive partnership with The Cheesecake Factory.

“DoorDash is gaining market share faster than anyone in the space,” DoorDash CEO and Co-founder Tony Xu said in a press release. “We’re thrilled to partner with premier investors to accelerate our vision to empower local economies by being the last-mile logistics layer.”