In the coming weeks, Domino's and Ford will partner to test driverless pizza delivery in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The jointly developed self-driving car has a heated compartment to keep pizza warm until it is delivered, Fox News reported. The customer enters a code to dispense the pizza they ordered.
Although the Ford Fusion Hybrid is fully capable of operating itself, it will be operated by an engineer during the tests, and researchers on board will study how customers interact with and react to the driverless vehicle, Fox News reported.
Comfort with retrieving their own pizza (and other items) as well as curbside vs. driveway drop-off are some of the things the behavioral scientists are looking to learn during the test.
Ford plans to launch driverless delivery on a large scale in 2021, according to Vice President of Ford Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification Sherif Marakby, The Verge reported. The automaker announced earlier this year that it will invest $1 billion in Argo AI, an artificial intelligence startup.
Marakby acknowledged that the human element is crucial even when cars are driverless.
“We know we can create technology, but it has to be based on the human element of how we’re using the AVs,” Markaby said, The Verge reported.
Domino's has experimented with other delivery technologies in the past, including delivery robots, drones, and a virtual digital assistant (think Siri).
The process was pre-tested at Mcity, a simulated city on the campus of the University of Michigan, CNN reported. During the pre-test, the driverless cars were allowed to drive themselves, although humans were in the driver’s seat at all times.