Domino's Pizza and Ford Motor Company are launching an industry-first collaboration to understand the role that self-driving vehicles can play in pizza delivery.

Randomly-selected Domino's customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan, are receiving their delivery order from a Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle, which will be manually-driven by a Ford safety engineer and staffed with researchers.

As part of the testing, researchers from both companies will investigate customer reactions to interacting with a self-driving vehicle as a part of their delivery experience.

“As delivery experts, we've been watching the development of self-driving vehicles with great interest as we believe transportation is undergoing fundamental, dramatic change,” said Patrick Doyle, Domino's president and chief executive officer. “We pride ourselves on being technology leaders and are excited to help lead research into how self-driving vehicles may play a role in the future of pizza delivery. This is the first step in an ongoing process of testing that we plan to undertake with Ford.”

As Ford builds out its business enabled by self-driving vehicles, conducting research with companies such as Domino's will be crucial to ensuring that the technology is applied in ways that enhance the customer experience. With a plan to begin production of self-driving vehicles in 2021, Ford is taking steps to design a business to meet the needs of both partner companies and their customers.

“As we increase our understanding of the business opportunity for self-driving vehicles to support the movement of people and goods, we're pleased to have Domino's join us in this important part of the development process,” said Sherif Marakby, Ford vice president for autonomous and electric vehicles. “As a company focused on the customer experience, Domino's shares our vision for a future enabled by smart vehicles in a smart environment that enhance people's lives.”

Randomly-selected Domino's customers who agree to participate will be able to track the delivery vehicle through GPS using an upgraded version of Domino's tracker. They also will receive text messages as the self-driving vehicle approaches that will guide them on how to retrieve their pizza using a unique code to unlock the Domino's heatwave compartment inside the vehicle.

“We're interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery,” said Russell Weiner, president of Domino's USA. “The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience. For instance, how will customers react to coming outside to get their food? We need to make sure the interface is clear and simple. We need to understand if a customer's experience is different if the car is parked in the driveway versus next to the curb. All of our testing research is focused on our goal to someday make deliveries with self-driving vehicles as seamless and customer-friendly as possible.”

Local partner Roush Enterprises fabricated the prototype vehicle's pizza container, the Domino's heatwave compartment. Ford and Domino's completed preliminary testing of the delivery process using the vehicle in self-driving mode at Mcity, the simulated urban environment on the University of Michigan's campus. The city of Ann Arbor also has been supportive of the testing process.

“I'm delighted that Ann Arbor continues to be at the forefront of autonomous-vehicle research,” said Ann Arbor's mayor, Christopher Taylor. “While it's pizza delivery today, my hope is that collaborations such as this will enable even more innovations tomorrow.”