Your next Domino’s pizza might arrive in a ‘self-driving’ Ford – Roadshow

If you’re one of a lucky few Michiganders within range of one specific Domino’s Pizza location in Ann Arbor, your next pizza could show up in a self-driving car… sort of.

Ford and Domino’s announced Tuesday that the two companies have partnered up to gauge customer reaction to self-driving cars. Instead of just asking folks on the street how they view autonomous vehicles, Ford wants to integrate one of its cars into the pizza delivery process.

“Honey, the pizza is here… I think.”

Ford

After ordering Domino’s in the Ann Arbor area, the customer may receive a phone call asking if they’d like to participate in this study. If the recipient says yes, Domino’s will load the customer’s order into Ford’s self-driving car. The recipient will receive a notification when the vehicle arrives, at which point they’ll have to walk outside, input a code into a device on the side of the car, and then they can retrieve the pizza from a special window designed to keep the pizza warm on its trip.

The whole point of this exercise is to gauge customer reaction to self-driving cars. After all, it’s not every day that a person will walk outside and see a car with multiple spinning lidar units, a whole bunch of sensors and a vinyl livery that very clearly spells out the car’s intentions.