Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Domino's, Ford Eye Self Driving Vehicles For Pizza Delivery

Is the pizza delivery boy about to be replaced by robots? Domino's Pizza and Ford Motor Co. said this morning that they are launching an effort to use self-driving vehicles to deliver pizzas, starting in Ford's hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan--all part of a study of self-driving vehicles in pizza delivery. According to Domino's and Ford, they will be delivering pizzas to randomly selected Domino's customers in Ann Arbor using self driving vehicles from Ford (with a technician monitoring things from the car), and use a special code to unlock access to their pizzas in specially built compartments built into the car. Domino's said the aim of the effort is to "someday make deliveries with self-driving vehicles as seamless and customer-friendly as possible." The adoption of self-driving vehicles promises to dramatically help lower costs and improve efficiency, in such areas as passenger transportation, truck drivers, and now, pizza delivery; however, the jobs those self-driving vehicles would replace are traditionally the few jobs available to first time workers, those without a high school education, and new immigrants.