#Nuro dominos drivers#

Meanwhile, it's the latest evidence that Domino's continues to push the envelope in the restaurant industry. Domino's is only testing robot delivery from one restaurant in Houston, but if it's successful, it could be both a huge cost saver and a crowd pleaser. A few years ago, prognosticators were forecasting that self-driving cars would soon be common. It's impossible to know where this experiment will go. That pattern should continue, as the pandemic only put Domino's in a stronger competitive position against rival restaurant chains, which have struggled during the crisis and have been unable to invest in growth and innovations like AV delivery. It's also been able to consistently expand its margins. Dave Ferguson, Nuro Co-Founder and President joins the Yahoo Finance Live panel to discuss the companys partnership with Dominos and investments from Chipotle and Softbank. The pizza chain announced today (June 17) that it has entered into a partnership with Nuro, a robotics delivery startup, to test using its robots to transport pizzas from a store in Houston. That shows that comparable sales will slow down from their brisk clip in 2020 as the company laps the tailwinds of the pandemic, but Domino's is still well positioned for long-term growth. In 2017, Dominos used a self-driving Ford Fusion hybrid to deliver pizzas to customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and in 2013 piloted pizza delivery via drone in the United Kingdom. In its two- to three-year outlook, the company called for annual global retail sales growth of 6% to 8% global net unit growth. The growing demand for great-tasting pizza creates the need for more deliveries, and we look forward to seeing how autonomous delivery can work along with Domino's existing delivery experts to better support the customers' needs.įor Domino's, testing autonomous delivery is a natural extension of its e-commerce strategy, and the company is well positioned to benefit from automation technologies like driverless cars, digital assistants to take orders, and robots to assist with food prep. 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. As another first for the company, Nuro’s R2 completed the. There is still so much for our brand to learn about the autonomous delivery space. In 2020, Nuro began testing its second-generation EV, the R2, which you may have seen delivering Dominos to Houston residents on TV. Department of Transportation.ĭennis Maloney, the company's chief innovation officer, explained the move, which was first announced in 2019, saying, Nuro's R2, the AV being used, is the first completely autonomous, occupant-less, on-road delivery vehicle that has been approved by the U.S. Delivery by robotĭomino's said Monday that it is teaming up with Nuro, a maker of autonomous vehicles, to offer pizza delivery with an autonomous-vehicle (AV) robot to select customers in Houston starting this week. Domino’s is the home of pizza delivery, said Dennis Maloney, Domino’s chief innovation. regulatory approval last year to start the unmanned delivery service.Image source: Domino's. consumers forked out a record-breaking 14 billion to have pizza delivered to their doors in 2020, and nearly half of that total was spent with just one brand: Domino’s. 'Nuro and Domino’s have taken a measured approach to prioritize a smooth and safe deployment,' Leipold said.

In 2019, Nuro and Domino’s said they expected to launch robot pizza delivery late that year. 'Houston’s roadways create challenging scenarios for our technology to work with.' city, has one of the country's highest road fatality rates. Leipold said Nuro, which has partnered with retailers Kroger Co, Walmart Inc and CVS Health Corp to deliver groceries and prescriptions, said its weekly deliveries nearly tripled in the first three months of the pandemic.

#Nuro dominos drivers#

'It’s generally difficult for large companies to hire enough drivers to fill their delivery demand,' he said in an emailed statement to Reuters. The delivery service will begin at a Domino's outlet in Houston, expanding to 'many customers in many locations' as part of a long-term partnership, said Cosimo Leipold, Nuro’s head of partner relations. With a small, low-speed vehicle to carry packages instead of people, the robot company has been pulling ahead of other autonomous startups in gaining regulatory approvals for on-road vehicle deployment. Nuro, founded by two former Google engineers in 2016, raised $940 million from the SoftBank Vision Fund and recently secured an undisclosed amount of equity investment from Woven Capital, the mobility investment arm of a Toyota Motor Corp subsidiary. SAN FRANCISCO, April 12 (Reuters) - Domino's Pizza Inc and Nuro Inc, a Silicon Valley startup, said on Monday they will launch robotic pizza delivery in Houston this week, seeking to capitalize on rising online orders caused by the pandemic.