Ford developing autonomous pizza delivery cars

Residents of one US city will soon have the option of having their favourite pizza delivered by self-driving vehicles thanks to a new partnership between Ford and Domino's USA.

Within the next few weeks, as part of a pioneering experiment, the pizza chain's customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan will have the option of having their takeaway delivered by an autonomous vehicle.

The research project is said to be beneficial on both sides.

Domino's wants to find out if its customers will be happy to leave the comfort of their home to collect their pizzas from an empty car parked outside.

Using Ford's experimental Fusion (our Mondeo) Hybrid equipped with its self-driving tech, the initial experiment, alas, isn't as ambitious as billed.

Disappointingly, not only is the transaction overseen by a human occupant, the 'autonomous Ford' will actually be driven by a human driver.

It's thought the challenge of locating and finding a large number of residential addresses and then finding a safe place to park nearby before summoning the customer would be too much for Fusion's developing self-drive tech.

"As we increase our understanding of the business opportunity for self-driving vehicles to support the movement of people and goods, we're pleased to have Domino's join us in the important part of the development process," said Ford's VP for autonomous vehicles, Sherif Marakby.

It's not the first time Domino's has experimented with innovative pizza delivery systems. In the past, it has used both drones and autonomous robots to deliver pizzas in New Zealand.