Self-Driving Car Successfully Delivers Pizza In One Neighborhood

\One can learn a lot from delivering pizzas. Ford Motor Company and Domino’s are shaking up the technology world with a self-driving delivery vehicles. One question will certainly pop up in your minds: how will customers interact with a self-driving delivery vehicle? When the self-driving vehicle is close to the destination, customers will get a text message (message and data rates apply) with special instructions on how to retrieve their order using a unique code to unlock the Domino’s Heatwave Compartment.

Domino's has been testing self-driving delivery cars. Two guys in a neighborhood in Las Vegas posted video of a self-driving Domino's car delivering their pizzas. They get an alert when it pulls up, enter a code on the side of the car, a window goes down, they grab their pizza, and the car drives off. No tip necessary. It is just a fun evening for eating pizzas that arrive in an experimental self-driving car. This hybrid autonomous research vehicle is not driving by itself but it is driven by a Ford safety engineer with other researchers onboard, who will zero in on the last 50 feet of the customer experience.

All the customers can track their order through a Domino’s application. So, the guys in this video that have ordered pizzas have received a unique code that matches the last four digits of their phone number which is used to unlock the so-called heatwave compartment - a container that keeps pizzas warm in the back of the car. The communicate with the car through the screen and speakers that can be seen on the exterior of the car. Ford, like many other carmakers, has invested heavily in autonomous technology, with an eye toward bringing self-driving cars to market by 2021.

When we are talking about smart vehicles, this is not the only video dealing with that topic. Surprisingly, the tiny Smart Cars have been around for for almost 25 years! We did not know though that. The original concept cars were created in 1994, though the idea had been in the works since 1982. It has become more popular in recent years, but it was not until 2010 that they really started to spread.

The smart car in this video was completely covered by snow during a storm. We’re not sure how the driver got in the car but he manages to drive it out of the snow drift. Hilariously, as they attempt to drive around a suburban street they can’t get the snow on the windshield to fall off. Eventually, they have to stop and we imagine get out and knock off the rest of the snow. It may be hard to hear over the wind, but the guy filming giggles at his buddies all of the time.

What do you think of a world where self-driving cars can deliver hot pizza right to your address? What else would you like to see autonomous vehicles used for? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!