SELF-DRIVING PIZZA DELIVERY CARS WILL BE TESTED IN THE US!
Imagine how awesome it would be having your pizza delivered to your door in a self-driving car!
Well, in the next few weeks this will be tested on some of Domino's customers in the US city of Ann Arbor in Michigan.
The aim of this experiment is not necessarly to see if the self-driving cars work. It is more a test to see if customers are happy to go out of their homes to collect a pizza from an empty car!
This experiment and research is being done by Ford, which is planning to start making self-driving vehicles in 2021.
Russell Weiner, president of Domino's USA (based just outside Ann Arbor) said the firm wanted to make sure that the delivery of its pizzas this way would be "clear and simple" for their customers.
"We're interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery", Weiner said.
"The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience. For instance, how will customers react to coming outside to get their food?"
"We need to understand if a customer's experience is different if the car is parked in the driveway versus next to the kerb," he explained.
Customers involved in the experience may be surprised at how many people are actually involved.
Firstly, the experimental Ford self-driving car (they're calling it the Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle) will in fact be driven by a human safety engineer – a driver.
After that, the vehicle will contain not only a pizza in an oven to keep it warm, but also some researchers who will record what is going on.
Here is the big question: will people who are used to having food delivered directly to their doorstep be happy to exert themselves by monitoring the delivery on a smartphone app, walking out of their door, opening the car using a special code to open the oven, taking the pizza out and then walking back?
Seriously, are we all that lazy?
The experiment process has already had preliminary, self-driven testing at Mcity, the urban test centre on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, which specializes in testing driverless vehicles.
"As we increase our understanding of the business opportunity for self-driving vehicles to support the movement of people and goods, we're pleased to have Domino's join us in this important part of the development process," said Sherif Marakby of Ford.
Domino's has already tested the delivery of pizzas in New Zealand using drones and self-driving robots.
Amazon, Alibaba, Google and UPS are all trying to develop services using drones, while in June British food and grocery delivery firm Ocado revealed a prototype driverless delivery van for short distance deliveries.