The #CityofTomorrow may potentially hold a very special delivery from #Ford and @Dominos. #pizzautonomy?? https://t.co/vhFb6qFYHA
— Ford Motor Company (@Ford) August 29, 2017
Ford is calling it "Pizzautonomy." This month in Ann Arbor, select Domino's customers will be receiving their pizza orders from an autonomous Ford Fusion Hybrid.
These experimental self-driving delivery cars have already seen plenty of on-road testing in the real world, and in the University of Michigan's closed-course replica of a city block. Ford isn't particularly interested in how they get the pizzas from the Domino's oven to the delivery address—what they care about in this test are the last 50 feet. In other words, in how customers interact with the car.
Before Ford can start developing products for food delivery companies like Domino's, they need to answer questions like:
- How will customers feel about walking to the car, instead of just answering the door?
- Will they figure out how to get the pizza out of the car?
- Is the interface simple and understandable, or frustrating?
- Should cars park at the curb, or pull into the driveway?
Ford says it will have self-driving cars on the road by 2021. Will self-driving delivery cars come to Greenville?
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