Domino's and Ford trial self-driving pizza delivery cars in Miami
Domino’s Pizza and Ford Motors have partnered up to trial self-driving pizza delivery cars in Miami, USA, in a bid to better understand how customers respond and interact with autonomous vehicles.
The two-month trial comes after the pair briefly collaborated on a pizza delivery test in Ann Arbor Michigan.
The automotive maker will deploy two fleets of cars in the Greater Miami area.
One fleet will be Ford Fusion Hybrid cars that will test Argo AI and meanwhile, the second fleet will test a wide variety of Ford models to test how Domino’s customers interact with the self-driving car.
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Domino’s customers will be able to track their delivery through the dominos app and will receive a unique code to unlock the so-called Heatwave Compartment which keeps the pizzas warm in the back of the car.
During the test, the cars will be driven by humans however they will not interact with customers.
The partnerships aim to provide a detailed analysis of how consumers interact with a seemingly driverless car delivering food.
Ford has also announced that it plans to launch its collaboration with Postmates, which allows customers to order a wide variety of items such as food, drink and groceries.
Postmates' partners in Miami include 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Subway and numerous local restaurants.
"The last 50 feet of delivering goods is a real challenge," Jim Farley, EVP and president of global markets for Ford, told CNBC. "This will help us better understand how customers interact with vehicles when there is a delivery by an autonomous-drive vehicle."
"Being in an urban area like Miami will really help us understand how our vehicles handle making deliveries in complex situations," he added. "There are double-parked cars, traffic diversions, deliveries being made to apartments."
