Shift Magazine - Issue 2 2018 - 18

Ford test vehicles take pizzas to
consumers, who input info on a
keypad and retrieve their orders.

PARTNERS

FOR PIZZA
Ford and Domino's team up to test
an autonomous delivery service and
make some surprising discoveries
BY MICHAEL MARTINEZ

hen it comes to mobility partnerships, Ford Motor Co. and
Domino's Pizza seemed as unlikely a combo as anchovies
and pineapple on pizza.
So why did they do it?
"We believe self-driving technology can play a significant role in helping grow the market for restaurant delivery, serving as one way that we'll
build demand and scale for our autonomous vehicle business, in addition
to people movement such as ride-hailing," Sherif Marakby, Ford vice president of autonomous vehicles and electrification, said in August.
That's when the duo linked up for a two-month autonomous pizza delivery pilot in Ann Arbor, Mich. It led to a number of findings about the potential of such a service as a revenue opportunity and has led the companies
to expand their own pilots into other cities.
"You think that pizza delivery is pretty innocuous, but oh my God,
did we learn stuff," Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, told
Automotive News late last year. "And we can incorporate those learnings
directly into the vehicle and into the vehicle development system."
The idea seemed simple: Customers would order food and "self-driving" Fusion hybrids would deliver it to their homes. (For the pilot, human
drivers operated the vehicles, but they did not interact with customers.)
Once the cars arrived, the customers would go to the rear passenger
side door, input information on a keypad and unlock and retrieve their food.
As it turned out, it wasn't as simple as Ford had planned.
In summer, the automaker found, customers tended to step outside
without shoes, making where the vehicle stopped - in the street vs. in
the driveway - of vital importance.
The automaker also discovered that customers were hesitant to put the
last four digits of their credit card into the car's keypad, but they were willing to input their phone numbers.
Additionally, Ford found that customers often talked to the car, saying
"Thank you" once they retrieved their order. As a result, Ford added a
sound system that can play recorded messages for the customers.
After the Ann Arbor pilot, Ford this year tested in Miami and expects to
expand to another city before year end. A Ford spokesman said Domino's
is running similar tests in Las Vegas.
And Ford has expanded beyond Domino's. It is testing delivery of food
and packages through Postmates.
All of this comes as the automaker prepares to launch a Level 4 self-driving commercial vehicle with a ride-hailing or ride-sharing service in 2021.
Marakby said last year: "We must put the customer experience at
the forefront of our thinking so self-driving vehicles improve the lives of
people, the operations of our partner companies and the mobility within
our communities." n

shift * july 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - Issue 2 2018