Domino’s and Ford to test pizza delivery by self-driving cars

Driverless pizza delivery will be tested in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as Domino's Pizza Inc and Ford Motor Co join hands to research reactions to robots bringing dinner to the driveway.

However, while the goodies will be delivered in an autonomous-capable Ford Fusion, there will still be a company engineer at the wheel, manually driving the car through the streets of the Midwestern city that is home to the University of Michigan.

The partnership will examine how customers react to stepping out of their homes and walking to the car to fetch their pizza rather than having it carried to their doorstep.

''We're interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery,'' Russell Weiner, president of Domino's USA, said in a statement. ''The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience. For instance, how will customers react to coming outside to get their food?''

For the company, the Ann Arbor experiment, which will be conducted over the next several weeks will provide a chance to look at new ways to meet its promise to have self-driving cars on the road by 2021.

New chief executive officer Jim Hackett has indicated he wants Ford to do more than just build robot taxis, as originally envisioned by his predecessor Mark Fields, who was ousted in May for not moving fast enough. Hackett is looking at delivery of goods such as food as another potential revenue source for autonomous autos.

''As we increase our understanding of the business opportunity for self-driving vehicles to support the movement of people and goods, we're pleased to have Domino's join us,'' said Sherif Marakby, Ford's vice president of autonomous and electric vehicles, who recently returned to the company after spending a year working on self-driving vehicle research at Uber Technologies Inc, Bloomberg reported.