Soon you may have a robot delivering your Pizza if you are living in Houston. Domino’s has partnered with Silicon Valley startup Nuro to launch this autonomous pizza delivery service to selected people. The company said that the autonomous delivery system will satisfy the continuous increase in online orders. Domino’s has registered a steep surge in online orders during the coronavirus pandemic and this trend seems to continue in the future as well. Customers, who will opt for it, will have their pies delivered in a fully autonomous vehicle. The small sized vehicle has been designed by the Nuro. The startup has already got US clearance for unmanned delivery services. Both the companies have taken several steps to make the launch of services smooth.
Nuro has been way ahead of its competitors in gaining approval. The robot car by Nuro was the first completely autonomous vehicle to get approval for an on-road delivery vehicle. The company recently secured USD 500 million including from Woven Capital. This raised the total valuation of the company to over USD 5 billion. The autonomous vehicle has been named R2. It is expected to start delivery in around seven days in Houston. The service will be expanded to other locations later.
Nuro head of partner relations Cosimo Leipold said that it is always a task for big companies to hire enough drivers. “This is where Nuro helps,” Leipold said. Nuro has already partnered with some big retailers like Walmart, Kroger, and CVS for providing autonomous delivery. The company said that during the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic, its weekly deliveries had almost tripled. Now Nuro will provide autonomous delivery in Houston which is the fourth largest city in the United States. The city has one of the highest fatality rates and therefore it will be a challenging task for the company. Nuro was founded in 2016 by two former engineers of Google.
