Domino’s, Nuro Launch Autonomous Delivery Service at Houston Store

As far as pizza chains are concerned, Domino’s is the first mover.

The pepperoni giant has a new courier in Houston, Texas: R2, Nuro’s driverless last-mile delivery bot. Starting this week, select customers who place a prepaid order at the Domino’s store in the Woodland Heights neighborhood can opt in to R2 delivery.

• Customers can track the bot via GPS and receive text updates about its journey through the congested streets of Texas’s largest city.
• Once R2 arrives, customers enter a PIN on its touchscreen and retrieve their pizza.

We were waiting for this

Every two months or so, we ping Nuro to ask about updates on the R2. The Chipotle-backed startup has US regulatory approval to deploy up to 5,000 of the vehicles, which have a max speed of 25 mph and are designed for neighborhood driving.

Domino’s has flirted with delivery bots before, but purpose-built, regulator-approved tech may be a better bet. But remember, this delivery service is starting small. Don’t expect commercial robotic delivery to scale for an entire country (or city) overnight. —RD