Domino’s Pizza announced Monday that it will start delivering pizza via its self-driving Nuro robots in Houston this week without interacting with anyone as part of a pilot program.
The company says: Certain Houston customers who place a prepaid delivery order from its Woodland Heights store during certain dates and times can get their pizza with the Nuro R2 robot. Dennis Maloney, Vice President and Head of Innovation at Domino’s Pizza, said in a statement : “There is still a lot for our brand to learn about the standalone delivery space”.
He added: This program allows us to better understand how customers respond to deliveries, how they interact with the robot and how this affects store operations.
The robot uses radar, 360-degree cameras and thermal imaging to guide its movement. Customers get text messages to inform them of the location of the robot and the PIN they need to access the pizza via the robot’s touch screen.
The independent, contactless food delivery industry has accelerated over the course of the pandemic, and Nuro is currently poised to become a leader in the field.
Dave Ferguson, co-founder and president of Nuro, said in a statement : “Nuro’s mission is to improve everyday life through robots.” He added : “We are excited to offer our standalone delivery robots to a select group of Domino’s Pizza customers in Houston.”
It is noteworthy that this is the first time that meals have been delivered by an electric, driverless and driverless electric vehicle across the roads in Houston.
Nuro originally announced the Domino’s Pizza partnership and began testing in Houston in 2019, and that same year began deploying its vehicles to haul Kroger grocery shopping in Houston and Phoenix.
And it was approved at the end of 2020 to begin testing via California public roads to deliver goods from partners such as Walmart.
In February, the Nuro R2 robot became the first fully autonomous cross-road vehicle to receive regulatory approval from the Department of Transportation, giving it a special waiver from federal safety requirements.
