Domino's Launches Autonomous Pizza Delivery Via On-Road Robot
Select Houston residents will be able to get pizza delivered via R2, an on-road robot, starting this week.
Pizza chain Domino's and self-driving delivery company Nuro are launching autonomous pizza delivery in Houston, TX. Nuro's R2 is the first completely autonomous, occupantless on-road delivery vehicle with a regulatory approval by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Select customers who place a prepaid order on dominos.com on certain days and times from the Domino's in Woodland Heights can choose to have their pizza delivered by the R2 robot. Customers who are selected will receive text alerts, which will update them on R2's location and provide them with a unique PIN to retrieve their order. Customers may also track the vehicle via GPS on their order confirmation page. Once R2 arrives, customers will be prompted to enter their PIN on the bot's touchscreen. R2's doors will then gently open upward, revealing the customer's hot Domino's order.
"There is still so much for our brand to learn about the autonomous delivery space," said Dennis Maloney, Domino's senior vice president and CIO. "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. The growing demand for great-tasting pizza creates the need for more deliveries, and we look forward to seeing how autonomous delivery can work along with Domino's existing delivery experts to better support the customers' needs."
"Nuro's mission is to better everyday life through robotics. Now, for the first time, we're launching real world, autonomous deliveries with R2 and Domino's," said Dave Ferguson, Nuro co-founder and president. "We're excited to introduce our autonomous delivery bots to a select set of Domino's customers in Houston. We can't wait to see what they think."