HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houstonians may notice something different about the way their pizza is delivered this week.
Domino's Pizza announced the launch of its autonomous pizza delivery. Partnering up with Nuro, the pizza chain said some of its customers will now be able to choose to have their pizza delivered by Nuro's R-2 robot.
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The Nuro R-2 is a completely autonomous on-road vehicle. This means, there will not be a delivery driver to greet you at the door with your order. Instead, the robot will drive the order to the address and customers will receive a pin to retrieve their order when it has arrived.
"Customers who are selected will receive text alerts, which will update them on R2's location and provide them with a unique PIN to retrieve their order. Customers may also track the vehicle via GPS on their order confirmation page. Once R2 arrives, customers will be prompted to enter their PIN on the bot's touchscreen. R2's doors will then gently open upward, revealing the customer's hot Domino's order," Domino's explained.
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Customers who order from the location in the Woodland Heights at 3209 Houston Avenue can choose to have their pizza delivered by Nuro's R-2 robot.
"We're excited to continue innovating the delivery experience for Domino's customers by testing autonomous delivery with Nuro in Houston," said Dennis Maloney, Domino's senior vice president and chief innovation officer. "There is still so much for our brand to learn about the autonomous delivery space. This program will allow us to better understand how customers respond to the deliveries, how they interact with the robot and how it affects store operations. The growing demand for great-tasting pizza creates the need for more deliveries, and we look forward to seeing how autonomous delivery can work along with Domino's existing delivery experts to better support the customers' needs."