Starting this week Domino’s Pizza is launching a delivery robot. It is being tested in Houston for customers who opt into the experiment. Their pizzas will be directly driven to them from a fully autonomous vehicle made by Nuro.
The technological thought that went into this system is impressive. If a customer opts into the robot delivery, they will be given updates by text on the location of the vehicle and the amount of time until their food is delivered. When the robot arrives, the customer will enter a code and after doing so, the door will drop down, allowing them to claim their pizza.
This isn’t Domino’s first try at autonomous deliveries. In 2017, they used a self-driving Ford Fusion hybrid to deliver pizzas to randomly chosen customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And in 2013, Domino’s tested out pizza delivery with drones in the United Kingdom.
Although these tests help to build hype around the company and bring in more customers, it isn’t likely Dominos’s will make a complete switch anytime soon.
“There is still so much for our brand to learn about the autonomous delivery space,” said Dennis Maloney, Domino’s Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer. “This program will allow us to better understand how customers respond to the deliveries, how they interact with the robot, and how it affects store operations.”
It will be interesting to see where Domino’s and many other pizza companies will take this. In the near future, we could be looking at a delivery service made up of only robots.
