Domino’s starts making autonomous pizza deliveries

If you order a pizza from Domino’s in Houston, a robot might drop off your dinner. The company will this week start making autonomous deliveries with the help of Nuro’s R2 robot, almost two years after it announced the project.

Domino’s says R2 is the first fully self-driving, on-road delivery vehicle to receive regulatory approval from the Department of Transportation. On certain days and times, folks who order from a Domino’s location in Woodland Heights can choose to have R2 deliver their food. They can track R2’s location via text alerts or on the order confirmation page. Domino’s will provide customers with a PIN, which they can punch in on R2’s touchscreen to retrieve their order.

Dennis Maloney, Domino’s senior vice president and chief innovation officer, said in a statement the company still had much to learn about the autonomous delivery space. “This program will allow us to better understand how customers respond to the deliveries, how they interact with the robot and how it affects store operations,” Maloney said.

Contributed by Engadget.