Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 28 February 2020

The DoorDash app is shown on a smartphone on Thursday,
Feb. 27, 2020 in New York.
Associated Press

Delivery giant

This Nov. 17, 2017, file photo shows a view inside an electric driverless shuttle produced by DoorDash takes step
EasyMile, during an experiment, in Paris.
Associated Press toward public offering
U.S. agency stops autonomous By ALEXANDRA OLSON

shuttle firm from hauling people AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Food delivery giant DoorDash has
taken a first formal step toward a stock market debut.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ing wheel and brake ped- dle unexpected problems. The San Francisco-based company said Thursday that
U.S. government's highway als, the imported shuttles EasyMile said in a state- it had filed paperwork with the Securities Exchange
safety agency has ordered need the agency to grant ment that its shuttle in Co- Commission outlining its proposed public stock offer-
an autonomous shuttle an exemption from federal lumbus was traveling 7.1 ing. There was no proposed date for an initial offering,
company to stop carrying motor vehicle safety stan- miles per hour (11.4 kilome- which could be a long way off. Last year, rival Post-
passengers in 16 U.S. cities dards. ters per hour) when it made mates delayed plans for an IPO, citing unfavorable
after a mysterious braking The 12-15 passenger shut- an emergency stop as it is market conditions.
problem occurred in Co- tles were halted in Colum- programmed to do, but it is DoorDash Inc. has overtaken Grubhub as the top digi-
lumbus, Ohio. bus as well as Dover, Del- unclear what triggered the tal food delivery company in the U.S., according to
The National Highway Traf- aware; West Valley City, emergency stop. The com- data analytics firm Second Measure, capturing 38%
fic Safety Administration Park City, Farmington and pany said it is running test of monthly food delivery sales in January, compared
says the suspension will re- Salt Lake City, Utah; Dal- loops to analyze the sud- to 31% for Grubhub.
main in place while it ex- las, Houston and Corpus denness of the stop. Analysts have said both DoorDash and Postmates
amines safety issues with Christi, Texas; Dublin, Cali- The statement said NHTSA is are burning cash and need money-raising options as
the low-speed shuttles op- fornia; Golden, Colorado; still allowing EasyMile vehi- the third-party delivery business becomes more frag-
erated by France-based Raleigh, North Carolina; cles on the road in 10 states mented and competitive.
EasyMile. Gainesville, Florida; Fari- for testing but they will not DoorDash was valued at about $13 billion after a Nov.
To operate without a steer- fax, Arlington and Blacks- be accessible to the pub- 13 funding round that raised $700 million, according
burg, Virginia; and Basking lic. to PitchBook Data.
Ridge, New Jersey. Sharad Agarwal, EasyMile Wall Street has been wary of fast-growing, money-
The agency made the senior vice president in losing companies. Ride-hailing company Uber — an-
move after an EasyMile Denver, said the compa- other major delivery player through Uber Eats — has
shuttle in Columbus braked ny is investigating why the traded well below its IPO price since going public last
suddenly, causing a pas- shuttle computer decided year, as has rival Lyft.
senger to fall from a seat to stop. The shuttles are Besides Uber, Grubhub is the only publicly traded
and suffer a minor injury. programmed to stop if they digital food delivery company. Grubhub saw its stock
"NHTSA will continue to detect any kind of prob- plunge last fall after slashing full-year revenue expec-
work with all affected par- lem, he said. tations, citing costs associated with gaining customer
ties, including EasyMile and "We'd be more concerned loyalty in a crowded field.
local authorities, to evalu- if it didn't stop," Agarwal Food delivery apps are fighting over a growing but still
ate potential future vehicle said. small market. Delivery represents only about 3% of all
operations, consistent with Earlier this month NHTSA restaurant orders, according to market research firm
applicable legal require- granted Silicon Valley ro- NDP.
ments and public safety," botics company Nuro tem- Delivery companies are also facing legal battles over
the agency said in a state- porary approval to run au- business practices that critics say harm both restau-
ment. tonomous delivery vehicles rants and freelance workers that deliver meals.
Low-speed shuttles gener- on public roads for the first DoorDash has pledged $30 million to fight a new
ally run 25 mph or less and time without human oc- California law that would give contractors work-
are restricted to small geo- cupants. Those vehicles place protections of full-fledged employees. In New
graphic areas. The EasyMile also had to get an exemp- York, the City Council is considering a legislation to
shuttles have a human at- tion from federal safety cap the commissions that food delivery apps charge
tendant on board to han- standards.q restaurants.q