Aerial drones being used as delivery systems have been hogging up all the limelight, from UPS truck drones to Amazon Prime Air. But it seems as though a famous Pizza joint Dominos is adamant on keeping things on the ground, at least for now! Back in 2016, Dominos unveiled their latest plans of using a self-driving car to deliver the pizzas, and now their latest wheeled delivery robot is making all the headlines, as they have enlisted land rovers from a startup, Starship Technologies, that will deliver Domino’s pizzas to selected cities of Germany and the Netherlands.
Starship Technologies’ robot is a six-wheeled electric platform with a range of two miles (3.2 km). The robots have an impressive top speed of 10 mph (16 km/h) but will roam around at more pedestrian-friendly four mph (6 km/h). Starship already completed their first online food using this self-driving robot back in December, and now Domino’s is looking to build on the initiative.
Don Meij, Domino’s Group CEO and Managing Director talked about the innovation,
“Robotic delivery units will complement our existing delivery methods, including cars, scooters and e-bikes, ensuring our customers can get the hottest, freshest-made pizza delivered directly to them, wherever they are.”
“With our growth plans over the next five to 10 years, we simply won’t have enough delivery drivers if we do not look to add to our fleet through initiatives such as this.”
The project is part of the Domino’s Robotic Unit, which has been actively looking to launch autonomous delivery robots and drones for the company. The self-driving wheeled robots will at first be accompanied by a human in case something goes wrong, but this initiative is primarily aimed at cutting down the costs of delivery and increasing the efficiency, meaning more layoffs for the poor delivery boys!