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Domino’s Pizza and Nuro, a Silicon Valley-based company, said Monday they will launch a robotic pizza delivery service in Houston this week as they try to satisfy increasing online orders during the pandemic.
With small low-speed vehicles to transport packages instead of people, Nuro started ahead of other autonomous vehicles to get regulatory approvals. It received U.S. approval last year to start unmanned delivery services.
Nuro recently secured $ 500 million, including a share investment from Woven Capital, the mobility investment arm of a Toyota subsidiary, which made the total valuation more than $ 5 billion.
The delivery service will begin at a Domino’s store in Houston before being expanded to serve customers in many other locations as part of a long-term partnership, said Cosimo Leipold, head of partners at Nuro.
“It’s generally difficult for large companies to hire enough managers to fill their delivery demand,” Leipold told Reuters in an email.
Leipold said Nuro, which has already partnered with retailers Kroger, Walmart and CVS to deliver groceries and prescriptions, said its weekly deliveries nearly tripled in the first three months of the pandemic.
Houston, the fourth largest American city, has one of the country’s highest death rates. “Houston’s roads create challenging scenarios for our technology to work with,” Leipold added.
Nuro and Domino’s said in 2019 they expect to start a delivery of robotic pizzas later that year. “Nuro and Domino’s have taken a moderate approach to prioritizing a smooth and secure implementation,” Leipold said.
Founded in 2016 by two former Google engineers, Nuro previously raised $ 940 million from the SoftBank Vision Fund.