This fall Houston consumers could get their pizza delivered by an autonomous vehicle, now that Domino’s has partnered with Nuro in an autonomous delivery test.
Domino’s Pizza’s Chief Information Officer Kevin Vasconi said it would be one of the company’s many tests around autonomous vehicles and new ways of delivering pizza.
“We are always looking for new ways to innovate and evolve the delivery experience for our customers,” Vasconi said. “Nuro’s vehicles are specially designed to optimize the food-delivery experience, which makes them a valuable partner in our autonomous vehicle journey. 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.”
Nuro has been operating in the area for almost a year. But this would be the first major brand testing time-sensitive deliveries with the company. Until now, Nuro had mostly worked with the grocery chain Kroger.
Customers for the single store in the test will be able to opt in, track the vehicle through the delivery and use a PIN to unlock the vehicle to get their pizza. Nuro said it would put the customer experience at the forefront.
“Domino’s delivers millions of pizzas around the world every day, and the company shares our passion for focusing on the customer experience,” said Cosimo Leipold, Nuro’s head of partner relations. “We see incredible opportunity in offering Nuro’s world-class autonomous technology to Domino’s customers, accelerating our shared mission to transform local commerce.”
It will be interesting to see how Nuro delivers pizzas, but the driverless promise isn’t quite here yet. Nuro delivers with a fleet that includes driverless cars with “safety drivers.” The six autonomous vehicles currently on the road are being followed by Neuro employees to ensure safe operations. It is currently working on a new version of the fully autonomous vehicles after a successful $1 billion financing round.
