Domino's teams up with Nuro to deploy robotic vehicles for pizza delivery in Houston

Domino’s Pizza and Silicon Valley startup Nuro Inc are together launching a driverless robotic pizza delivery service in Houston this week, aiming to satisfy the increasing online orders amid the ongoing pandemic. Nuros’s low-speed vehicles used to carry packages have been overtaking other autonomous vehicle startups in gaining regulatory approvals. The company's R2 was the first driverless vehicle to get regulatory approval from the US Department of Transport last year. 

Nuro recently secured a $500 million investment including equity from Woven Capital - the mobility investment arm of a Toyota Motor Corp subsidiary, taking total valuation to more than $5 billion.

The autonomous pizza delivery service will kickstart from a Domino’s outlet in Houston and further expand to serve customers in various other locations as part of a long-term partnership, said Cosimo Leipold, Nuro’s head of partner relations. The robotic delivery system would replace the need to hire enough drivers to meet the demand.

Nuro shines amid pandemic

Having partnered with retailers such as Kroger Co, Walmart Inc and CVS Health Corp to deliver groceries and prescriptions, Nuro’s weekly deliveries had nearly tripled in the first three months of the pandemic.

The fourth-largest US city, Houston has one of the highest road fatality rates in the country. The city’s roadways create challenging scenarios for our technology to work with, Leipold said. Nuro and Domino’s have taken a measured approach to prioritize a smooth and safe deployment, he added.

In 2019, Nuro and Domino’s had said they expected to launch robot pizza delivery late that year. The startup, founded by two former Google engineers in 2016, had raised $940 million from the SoftBank Vision Fund.