The American chain of pizzerias Domino's pizza will begin delivering pizzas with the startup's self-driving robots Nuro by the end of this year.
"Nuro vehicles are optimized for transporting food, especially for delivering pizzas, " explains Kevin Vasconi of Domino's at a press conference. "The opportunity to offer a new delivery solution to our customers is also an important part of the roll-out of autonomous vehicles."
The deal is a big coup for the Silycon Valley startup, which had already raised nearly $ 950 million in funding. Domino's delivers 3 million pizzas a day, just imagine the profit of a similar order.
"In this test phase, customers will be able to order Domino's products online and follow the vehicle's path to their home from our app, unlocking the robot to deliver the pizzas with a pin that will be provided upon arrival".
Many companies that are developing autonomous driving solutions for home delivery pizzas focus on cars or small vans: Nuro has its own vehicle, R1, half the size of a normal car and without spaces for drivers.
The advantage is multiple
These measures ensure the vehicle more maneuverability and lightness, less risk (almost zero) of damaging pedestrians in the event of an accident and others. For one thing, Nuro does not run the risk of a delivery person getting bored in traffic, and so he can make his vehicles travel under 40km per hour to avoid serious accidents altogether.
Until the end of this summer, the first delivery tests will see robot vehicles followed by cars driven by humans for supervision. The CEO of Nuro, Dave Ferguson, is confident that he will be able to do without this "precautionary measure" already before December.
