Cruise Automation, the self-driving unit of General Motors, is teaming up with DoorDash to test a food delivery service in San Francisco using autonomous vehicles. The pilot will commence in “early 2019,” the companies said, but it will only be available in the section of the city where Cruise has been testing its vehicles.

The news comes just two days after GM president Dan Ammann formally assumed his new role as CEO of Cruise, replacing founder Kyle Vogt. (Vogt is now president and chief technology officer of Cruise.) It’s a sign that GM is exploring different revenue streams around self-driving cars as it nears its promised launch of a ride-sharing service in 2019.

It’s a sign that GM is exploring different revenue streams around self-driving cars

Under the pilot, Cruise’s self-driving Chevy Bolt vehicles will be used to make grocery and restaurant deliveries for DoorDash customers in San Francisco. A spokesperson for Cruise would not say how many vehicles will be involved in the pilot, nor would he define the service area involved. Currently, Cruise has 180 vehicles registered with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and over 400 safety drivers. Those vehicles operate in the city’s busiest neighborhoods, according to Cruise.

Cruise does not yet have a license to operate a ride-sharing service, so the vehicles are only used by the company’s employees. The DoorDash partnership is a way for Cruise to start experimenting with a commercial operation before it gets the green light from the state to begin picking up passengers.

According to DoorDash:

As part of the program, select DoorDash customers will receive deliveries from their favorite restaurants via a Cruise autonomous vehicle. In addition to ready-made restaurant meals, the partnership will also explore grocery fulfillment via Cruise vehicles for select grocers already partnered with DoorDash. DoorDash and Cruise expect to evaluate and develop safety, operational, and other learnings in the pilot.

Cruise isn’t the only AV operator exploring robot delivery as a possible business model. Ford has partnerships with Walmart, Instacart, and Domino’s Pizza, while Waymo is testing self-driving trucks in the Atlanta region. Smaller startups, like Nuro, have already deployed fully driverless delivery vehicles in Arizona.

GM is under enormous pressure to show results from the investments it has made in its self-driving operation

GM is under enormous pressure to begin to show results from the investments it has made in its self-driving operation. In addition to testing in San Francisco, the automaker is working on two purpose-built autonomous vehicles: one based on its Chevy Bolt electric models without a steering wheel or pedal, and another it’s making in collaboration with Honda. Last October, Honda announced that it will devote $2 billion to the effort over 12 years, which, together with a $750 million equity investment in Cruise, brings the Japanese automaker’s total commitment to $2.75 billion.

Meanwhile, GM’s core business is undergoing a major restructuring. The automaker recently announced that it would be laying off thousands of workers and closing four US plants. It also plans to discontinue production of several low-selling models, including the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt.

By committing to rolling out fully driverless cars in a shortened time frame, GM is seeking to outmaneuver rivals both old and new in the increasingly hyper-competitive race to build and deploy robot cars. Ford has said it will build an autonomous car without a steering wheel or pedals by 2021, while Waymo launched an extremely limited commercial ride-hailing service in Phoenix late last year.