Pizza Delivery Robots Are Here At Last, Delivering Dominos
Dominos is bringing on delivery robots to complete pizza orders. It's helping to usher in a new world order of technological takeover
I’m not sure how many more examples we need of robots taking over the world but the news is coming fast and furious on that front. There are just too many stories these days of new technology coming into our everyday lives in seemingly innocent (but not really) ways that the future of our planet is at stake. Sure, it starts out simple with a robot dog, or a machine helping us play video games. And then before you know it, we are watching robotic Terminators crush human skulls in a bombed-out dystopian wasteland of our own creation. It’s coming people, and the next stop on the technological timeline is Dominos apparently using robots to deliver pizza. It starts out in such a simple way.
Dominos Pizza has been rolling out new technology that has self-driving vehicles to get your sausage and pepperoni. The process is remarkably simple though no less impactful for our future as living free from under the reign of robots and artificial intelligence. The initial rollout of these pizza delivery robots is taking place in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. The machinations (pun intended) around getting your pizza are fairly simple and don’t deviate at all from the time-honored ways we’ve gotten our large cheese and breadsticks in the past. Check out how it works:
A customer places the order and then chooses between a robot or a human delivery. They can get texts from the robot along the way and they also receive a confirmation number. The robot delivery car shows up curbside, the customer enters the number, and voila, the door opens and there’s your hot and steaming pizza. These delivery robots roll down the street like any other car or vehicle and are programmed to stay out of the way of traffic and pedestrians.
The vehicles these delivery robots will be using are made by Nuro. Their mission, according to the website, is to better everyday life through robotics. Their car being used here is appropriately named R2. They are used by a number of other brands out there besides just Dominos. Those include partnerships with Walmart, Chipotle, Kroger, and CVS. It won’t be long, presumably, until all of these brands are using delivery robots to bring all manner of goods to our doorstep free of human contact. And then just wait until Amazon reaches critical mass on its Scout delivery robots. Then it’s probably all over and we can call it a civilization.
This isn’t the latest example of robots entering our lives in seemingly harmless, but no less impactful ways. Recently, the New York City Police Department was seen using a Boston Dynamics robot dog out on patrol on the streets. They’ve been using this *K-9* in certain situations related to domestic calls and other issues. But they’ve been called into question around the surveillance technology they have and how they are actually being used by the force.
In all, delivery robots from Dominos appear innocent enough. But that’s how every science-fiction movie starts, with something small and helpful. And then before you know it, you’re running away and fighting back against your robot overlords.
