FILE- This Oct. 27, 2016, photo shows Domino’s Pizza boxes at one their locations, in Hialeah, Fla. Domino’s plans to test pizza delivery using Nuro’s unmanned R2 delivery vehicles in Houston. The world’s biggest pizza company is teaming up with Nuro, a Silicon Valley startup that makes unmanned delivery vehicles. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Domino’s Pizza and Nuro will launch autonomous delivery service to certain online customers in the Houston area later this year.
Nuro, the SoftBank-funded robotics company, has been delivering groceries with self-driving vehicles from Kroger stores in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Houston.
The pizzas will be delivered in Nuro’s R2, an unmanned toaster-shaped vehicle with shelves to store customers’ orders.
“We are always looking for new ways to innovate and evolve the delivery experience for our customers,” Kevin Vasconi, Domino’s chief information offer, said in a statement. “Nuro’s vehicles are specially designed to optimize the food delivery experience. The opportunity to bring our customers the choice of an unmanned delivery experience, and our operators an additional delivery solution during a busy store rush, is an important part of our autonomous vehicle testing.”
While Nuro’s R2 is equipped with the sensors and navigational technology similar to that found on self-driving vehicles transporting passengers, it has not driver inside to take control if needed. In the Kroger pilot programs, the vehicles are supervised by two human drivers in a trailing car. A Nuro spokeswoman said the pizza deliveries will also be trailed by a human-driver car.
The service will initially be restricted to a limited number of participating Domino’s outlets. Online customers of those stores will be able to track their delivery vehicle online through the Domino’s app, which will send them a personal identification number they can use to unlock the compartment containing their pizza.
Nuro has raised more than $1 billion in financing, largely from SoftBank and Greylock Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Last year Nuro began delivering a variety of goods, including food, groceries and dry cleaning with driverless vehicles.
This is at least Domino’s second experience with autonomous vehicle delivery. In 2017 the pizza company launched limited deliveries in Ann Arbor, Michigan, using autonomous Ford Fusions, but those vehicles have a human inside to take control if needed.
