Autonomous pizza delivery

Research into driverless pizza delivery is being undertaken by Domino’s Pizza and the Ford Motor Company.

Customer reaction to interacting with self-driving delivery will be tested as part of the project.

“As delivery experts, we’ve been watching the development of self-driving vehicles with great interest as we believe transportation is undergoing fundamental, dramatic change,” Domino’s president and chief executive officer Patrick Doyle says. “We pride ourselves on being technology leaders and are excited to help lead research into how self-driving vehicles may play a role in the future of pizza delivery. This is the first step in an ongoing process of testing that we plan to undertake with Ford.”

Ford plans to begin production of self-driving vehicles in 2021.

“As we increase our understanding of the business opportunity for self-driving vehicles to support the movement of people and goods, we’re pleased to have Domino’s join us in this important part of the development process,” Ford autonomous and electric vehicles vice president Sherif Marakby says.

During the next few weeks, randomly-selected Domino’s customers in Ann Arbor in Michigan will have the opportunity to receive their delivery order from a Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle, manually-driven by a Ford safety engineer and staffed with researchers.

Customers who agree to participate will be able to track the delivery vehicle through GPS using an upgraded version of Domino’s Tracker. They will also receive text messages as the self-driving vehicle approaches that will guide them on how to retrieve their pizza using a unique code to unlock the Domino’s Heatwave Compartment inside the vehicle.

“We’re interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery,” Domino’s USA president Russell Weiner says.

He says most of their questions concern the final 15 metres of the delivery.

“For instance, how will customers react to coming outside to get their food? We need to make sure the interface is clear and simple. We need to understand if a customer’s experience is different if the car is parked in the driveway versus next to the kerb. All of our testing research is focused on our goal to someday make deliveries with self-driving vehicles as seamless and customer-friendly as possible.”

Ford and Domino’s completed preliminary testing of the delivery process using the vehicle in self-driving mode at Mcity, the simulated urban environment on the University of Michigan’s campus.