Autonomous pizza delivery launched in Houston
Select Domino’s customers who place a prepaid order on dominos.com on certain days and times from the company’s Woodland Heights store can choose to have their pizza delivered by Nuro’s R2 robot vehicle – the first completely autonomous, occupantless on-road delivery vehicle with a regulatory approval by the U.S. Department of Transportation. This collaboration, say the companies, will introduce an entirely new delivery experience to pizza lovers.
“We’re excited to continue innovating the delivery experience for Domino’s customers by testing autonomous delivery with Nuro in Houston,” says Dennis Maloney, Domino’s senior vice president and chief innovation officer. “There is still so much for our brand to learn about the autonomous delivery space. 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.”
In the collaboration, select Domino’s customers who place a prepaid website order from the participating Domino’s store can opt to have their order delivered by R2. 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.
Dave Ferguson, Nuro co-founder and president adds, “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. 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.”
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