The world’s largest pizza delivery company, Domino’s, has announced it’s going to be offering customers in the American city of Houston driverless deliveries.

Select customers who order from a specific branch in the city can choose to have their pizza delivered by Nuro’s R2 robot, which Domino’s says is the first completely “autonomous, occupantless on-road delivery vehicle with a regulatory approval by the US Department of Transportation”.

Domino’s says its collaboration with Nuro “will introduce an entirely new delivery experience to pizza lovers”. Customers who place a prepaid website order from the participating Domino’s store can opt to have their order delivered by R2. If they’re selected, they’ll receive text alerts, which will update them on R2’s location and provide them with a unique PIN to retrieve their order. Once R2 arrives, customers will be prompted to enter their PIN on the bot’s touchscreen. R2’s doors will then open, “revealing the customer’s hot Domino’s order”.

“We’re excited to continue innovating the delivery experience for Domino’s customers by testing autonomous delivery with Nuro in Houston,” said Dennis Maloney, Domino’s senior vice president and chief innovation officer. “There is still so much for our brand to learn about the autonomous delivery space. This programme will allow us to better understand how customers respond to the deliveries, how they interact with the robot and how it affects store operations.”

“Nuro’s mission is to better everyday life through robotics. Now, for the first time, we’re launching real world, autonomous deliveries with R2 and Domino’s,” added Dave Ferguson, Nuro co-founder and president. “We’re excited to introduce our autonomous delivery bots to a select set of Domino’s customers in Houston. We can’t wait to see what they think.”

(Picture – Domino’s)