Domino's CEO and Nuro president on autonomous pizza delivery launch

Domino’s Pizza’s newest deliverer isn’t a person — it’s a self-driving car.

The restaurant company said Monday that an autonomous car made by Nuro will start delivering pizzas in Houston this week as part of a pilot program.

Customers will have to place a prepaid order on Domino’s website for delivery from the chain’s Woodland Heights location. If their order falls within certain days and times, they can choose to have Nuro’s R2 robot drop off their pizza. Once the robot arrives, customers will enter a unique PIN on its touch screen to prompt the doors to open so they can retrieve their pizza.

A Domino’s spokeswoman said the company doesn’t have an end date for the pilot program yet.

The R2 robot is the first completely autonomous on-road delivery vehicle without any occupants to receive regulatory approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Nuro, which was founded by two former members of Google’s self-driving car team, raised $500 million in its last funding round, which included an investment from Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Over the last decade, Domino’s has invested in technology to make ordering and receiving a pizza faster and easier, helping it lure customers away from independent pizzerias and other chains, such as Papa John’s. Driverless pizza delivery is one area of recent focus, although the company is still years — or even decades — away from replacing its entire fleet of drivers.

In 2019, the company announced its partnership with Nuro. Two years before, it researched how consumers would react to pizza delivery by an autonomous car from Ford.

Domino’s shares have risen 13% in the last year, giving it a market value of $15.2 billion. The company has benefited from consumers’ desire for delivery during the coronavirus pandemic, but analysts are concerned about pizza fatigue in the coming months.

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[spaceyrogue]

"...working with Neuro to develop this partnership, and how you forsee the robotic delivery fitting into the overall strategy at Dominos?"

[johnz.]

Im going to love watching these things get stuck in snow storms. Lol

[richardtaylor]

"Hard to find workers" she said...
The whole line was "workers who are willing to work for such low wages"

[richardtaylor]

I'll just say that pizza delivery drivers in the 90s made almost as many REAL dollars as they do now. Ie $300 to $500 a week in most markets. In the 90s that was a good side hustle, now not so much. I bet in 25 more years they will still be making the same...

[paybrookman]

People need jobs to buy your stuff. These companies are trying to squeeze every penny out of us . Soon no one will be able to afford anything. Then what ?

[michaelnewton]

The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever. But there was one man who taught us to fight. To storm the wire of the camps. To smash those metal MF’ers into junk!!

He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name was...Connor!! John Connor...your unborn son, Sarah!!

[boobook]

I'm out won't be buying Domino's anymore when you start replacing people for robots I'll start replacing you with other companies that keep people employed

[jofbeats]

It's bad enough that the pandemic has increased unemployment badly but having a freaking machine to deliver our food that's gonna increase unemployment even worse

[shilohsaves]

HMM 🤔 Nope, Don't like the "New Normal" I'll go get my own pizza. Just to get out of the fricken house.

[gigglecheeks]

To bad they don’t invest in making a good pizza first. The worst 😩😩😩

[markchandler]

they literally dodge all her questions and just kept saying nonsense selling tactics. That's how you know you can't trust these people or their company

[jennlynina]

Investing in a Bitcoin is the best investments anyone can do this year 2021 because bitcoin investments has made a lot of people millionaire.

[Danyal]

Failed concept, waste of a lot of resources. I understand the concept of having your food delivered faster, but without flying cars this won’t last long.

[khefrenka]

What a stupid waste of technology and money.