How amazing would it be that the next time you ordered a Dominos pizza delivery in Houston, a driverless, automated robot will pull up at your doorstep with your order?
The robotics company, Nuro has been operating its R2 driverless vehicles for grocery deliveries and for drops from CVS Pharmacy stores in Houston for months. Its newest venture involves partnering with the pizza delivery giant Dominos in select locations to fulfill deliveries that have been ordered online. Nuro partnered with the pizza chain in 2019 for a delivery pilot which has now been set in motion.
HOW DOES THE DOMINOS ROBOT PIZZA DELIVERY WORK IN HOUSTON?
A customer must place the order and pay online while choosing the option to have the pizza delivered by the R2. A unique PIN will be generated and sent to the customer along with text alerts about the location of the vehicle. When the vehicle pulls into its destination, the customer has to enter the PIN number which opens the doors of the vehicle where rests the pizza that was ordered.
Currently, the program is functional for orders placed at the store in the Woodland Heights neighborhood.
Dominos executive vice president and chief information officer Kevin Vasconi said about this initiative, “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.”
WHAT DOES NURO DO?
Nuro was founded in 2018 by two ex-Google engineers and has since then been working towards transforming local commerce deliveries by way of driverless robots. This includes services ranging from groceries, laundries and take-outs from local stores striving to survive in a booming e-commerce era. This service has become all the more imperative in light of the COVID-19 pandemic when social distancing has become the new normal.
With a panel of experts engaged in optimising robotics, artificial intelligence and product design, the aim of the company has been to help local shop owners deliver their products to customers quickly and efficiently.
About its partnership with Dominos in Houston, Nuro’s head of partner relations, Cosimo Leipold remarked, “Dominos delivers millions of pizzas around the world every day, and the company shares our passion for focusing on the customer experience. We see incredible opportunity in offering Nuro’s world-class autonomous technology to Dominos customers, accelerating our shared mission to transform local commerce.”
So the next time you order pizza from the Woodland Heights area in Houston, go with Dominos and experience the robot pizza delivery. You may even save on the tip!!!
Looking to save money while eating your favorite food? Check out this post on money saving tips at Chick-fil-A
For discounts and other news related to food scene in Houston, monitor our Food & Drink section.
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