% Neighbors that know your tel# could abscond/steal& scarf your pizza before you can get it. Like GM and Nissan, Ford is working with a China automaker to produce EVs for the China market (not the U.S.). ? So, when will Ford $pend on U.S. market EVs? %
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2017/08/28/ford-and-dominos-team-up-test-driverless-pizza-delivery/610350001/ Domino's and Ford team up for driverless pizza delivery test Aug. 29, 2017 Brent Snavely [images / Elaine Cromie/Special to the Free Press https://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/2017/08/28/DetroitFreeP/DetroitFreePress/636395303283972201-car1.jpg The Ford Fusion hybrid autonomous research vehicle, which will be used as the self-driving pizza delivery vehicle in a partnership between Ford and Domino's, photographed on Friday, August 25, 2017 at Domino's Farms in Ann Arbor https://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/2017/08/28/DetroitFreeP/DetroitFreePress/636395311516768975-Domino-s-EC-145.jpg Domino's Chief Development Officer, Kelly Garcia, stands next to the self-driving test vehicle on Friday, August 25, 2017, after the announcement of a partnership with Ford to test self-driving pizza delivery vehicles at Domino's Farms in Ann Arbor https://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/2017/08/28/DetroitFreeP/DetroitFreePress/636395305387489685-sensors.jpg Sensors are attached to the top of the Ford Fusion hybrid autonomous research vehicle, which will be used as the self-driving pizza delivery vehicle in a partnership between Ford and Dominos ] ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Someday, the Domino's pizza you order might show up in a Ford car that drives itself. Testing will begin testing the concept Tuesday in the Detroit suburb of Ann Arbor, where Domino's is based, to see whether customers like the idea of driverless-car delivery or stumble over what amounts to a self-serve pickup process once the pizza arrives. The nation's second-largest pizza chain isn't sure whether its customers will be eager to go outside to pick up their pizza from a driverless car in the rain and snow, but it wants to begin testing the idea now so it can position itself at the forefront of the emerging technology. “We are delivery experts. This is where the industry is going," said Russell Weiner, president of Domino's USA. “We think we are the right company, and we certainly are working with the right partner to make this happen." While the idea will require the customer to do a little extra work, people have adapted in the past to self-service gas and self-checkout at grocery stores. Plus, the pizza won't cost more, and no tip will be required. Why they are testing it Domino's wants to make sure it continues to explore innovative ways to stay ahead of the competition for getting pizzas to the right place as fast as possible. The company began dispatching pizzas to homes in 1960 and delivers more than 1 billion pizzas worldwide every year. “So delivery is very important to us," Weiner said. For Ford, partnering with Domino's provides a way to interact with a sophisticated company in the food-delivery business as it develops self-driving vehicles. While much of the focus is on self-driving vehicles used by ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, the sale of vehicles capable of delivering packages and goods could be just as lucrative for automakers. The Ford Fusion hybrid autonomous research vehicle, which will be used as the self-driving pizza delivery vehicle. "When you look at moving goods, there are perishable goods, which are difficult to do, like we are experimenting with Domino's, and then there are non-perishable goods," said Sherif Marakby, Ford's vice president of autonomous and electric vehicles. For now, the partnership only involves one vehicle at one Domino's pizza location in Ann Arbor [MI]. Over the next several weeks, randomly selected Domino’s customers in Ann Arbor will be asked whether they are willing to participate in the research project and receive their delivery from the self-driving Ford Fusion hybrid. While the vehicle will actually be driven by a Ford engineer and staffed with researchers, it is being made in a way to make the customer think it is driving itself. The windows will be tinted to prevent the customer from seeing the driver. Marakby said Michigan laws do not yet allow the delivery vehicle to operate on public streets in a full self-driving mode even though the vehicle is capable of driving itself. The customer will receive a text message when the vehicle arrives and then go out to the car. The customer will then enter the last four digits of his or her their phone number on a tablet computer mounted on the outside of the vehicle. The correct number causes the window to open and the customer can pull the pizza out of a compartment designed to keep the pizzas warm and prevent them from sliding around. Kevin Vasconi, Domino's chief innovation officer, said the company expects all kinds of things will go wrong. In fact, he actually hopes some customers have problems or get confused because the purpose of the test is to discover issues that engineers haven't anticipated. But engineers at Ford and Roush Performance, which outfitted the Fusion with the additional hardware and electronics necessary to turn it into a delivery vehicle, seem to have thought of almost everything. If the wrong number is keyed in three times, a prompt will direct the customer to call the store for assistance. If a phone or another object is left in the compartment, as the customer picks up, the pizza's sensors will detect the object and a voice will remind customers to make sure they have all of their belongings. A touchscreen interface tablet, which will guide the customer through the whole experience, is attached on the passenger side of a Ford Fusion hybrid autonomous research vehicle. And if customers linger too long as they check out the vehicle, they will be asked to step away so the car can safely drive away. Afterwards, customers will be asked to participate in a survey that will ask how they liked the service. A threat to delivery jobs? What the Domino's customer thinks about the service is one thing. But what will the thousands of drivers who deliver Domino's pizza think about the idea of a self-driving delivery vehicle? Weiner argued that anything that helps Domino's thrive and stay ahead of the competition will benefit the company and its drivers and won't be a threat. He also said change is inevitable. "What our drivers have seen is when we come out with innovations, more people order pizza and when more people order pizza ... that increases demand, which will require us to hire more people," Weiner said. "And frankly, there are some places where maybe your driver will not want to drive." While Domino's has been focused primarily on pizza delivery for more than 50 years, it does not break out the number of drivers who make a living delivering pizza. Hourly pay for Domino’s delivery drivers typically falls between $5 and $9 an hour but some earn up to $15 per hour with tips, according to a job posting. Domino's research into the possibility of delivering its products with a driverless vehicle comes as more experts are warning that self-driving vehicles could threaten the jobs held by people in a number of transportation sectors. It could take up to 25 years before self-driving vehicles become ubiquitous, but when that happens, U.S. drivers in trucking and transportation industries could see job losses at a rate of 25,000 a month, or 300,000 a year, according to a report from Goldman Sachs Economics Research in May. Weiner said Domino's has survived for five decades by being at the forefront of new technology, with innovations ranging from the introduction of its "heat wave bag" in 1998 to the ability to order a pizza by phone and online and to follow an order with its "Domino's Tracker." "That’s where the world is going to be going. And the idea for us is to never be playing catch-up," Weiner said. "We need to be at the front end." Ford's reliance on partnerships Ford's approach to the six-week test project with Domino's underscores the Dearborn automaker's view that it will need to work with more partners than ever before as it develops and deploys self-driving vehicles. Sensors are attached to the top of the Ford Fusion hybrid autonomous research vehicle, which will be used as the self-driving pizza delivery vehicle in a partnership between Ford and Dominos. The modifications made to Fusion by Roush with guidance from Domino's help to illustrate a concept called "design thinking" that new Ford CEO Jim Hackett has been emphasizing since he was appointed in May, Marakby said. "The new thing we are thinking about — in addition to moving goods and moving people — is the fact that the human interface has got to be right and it has to be a very, very important piece," Marakby said. Marakby said partnerships are necessary to help rapidly develop and deploy the technology and to design it in a way that serves the needs of customers across a number of different industries that will benefit from self-driving delivery vehicles. Ford will likely seek out more partners with companies like Domino's that have customers who order goods online as well as with technology companies and specialized engineering companies such as Roush. "We can’t do this alone," Marakby said. "When you think about the market of self-driving vehicles, it's very different — it's very different from the way we have been building and marketing our cars and trucks for the past 100 years." [© usatoday.com] ... https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=22560006 Company Overview of Roush Enterprises, Inc. August 29, 2017 Auto Components https://www.linkedin.com/company/roush-industries ... https://www.google.com/search?q=Roush+Ford+Domino%27s Search Roush Ford Domino's http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-self-driving-pizza-delivery-ford-dominos-20170829-story.html Delivery without drivers: Domino's, Ford team up for test August 29, 2017 ... The experiment will help Domino's understand how customers will interact with a self-driving car, says company President Russell Weiner. Will they want the car in their driveway or by the curb? Will they understand how to use the keypad? Will they come outside if it's raining or snowing? Will they put their pizza boxes on top of the car and threaten to mess up its expensive cameras? ... specially designed delivery car that Ford Motor Co. and Domino's Pizza will use to test self-driving pizza deliveries, at Domino's headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich. Ford and Domino's are teaming up to test how consumers react if a driverless car delivers their pizzas. The car, which can drive itself but will have a backup driver, lets customers tap in a code and retrieve their pizza from a warming space in the back seat ... http://www.trbimg.com/img-59a56c04/turbine/ct-self-driving-pizza-delivery-ford-dominos-20170829 ... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-29/ford-domino-s-to-test-consumer-appetite-for-driverless-delivery Ford, Domino's to Test Consumer Appetite for Driverless Delivery August 28, 2017 ... autonomous and electric vehicles, who recently returned to the company after spending a year working on self-driving vehicle research at Uber Technologies ... Partners cook up trial aimed at assessing customer acceptance ... Robot rides outfitted with compartment to keep the pizzas warm ... ... http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKCN1B90C7-OCABS Ford teams with Domino's on self-driving pizza delivery test August 28, 2017 ... Ford ... and Domino's Pizza Inc in September will begin testing ... consumers' reactions to having their pies delivered by self-driving vehicles ... it will not provide true door-to-door delivery service. "We're still focused on the last 50 feet, ... getting (the pizza) from the curb to the door." ... A Ford self-driving delivery vehicle ... in front of a Domino's pizza restaurant ... https://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?d=20170829&t=2&i=1198974940 [dated] http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Domino-s-Auton-Electric-Pizza-Delivery-Robot-ts-12mph-tp4681167.html EVLN: Domino’s Auton Electric Pizza-Delivery Robot ts:12mph http://blog.caranddriver.com/what-took-you-so-long-dominos-introduces-pizza-delivery-robot/ What Took You So Long? Domino’s Introduces Pizza-Delivery Robot Mar 25, 2016 ... http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Domino-s-Twizy-delivered-pizzas-r-60mi-ts-50mph-tp4660516.html EVLN: Domino's Twizy delivered pizzas r:60mi ts:50mph Renault Twizy EV gets a slice of Domino's action £6,690 Twizy in a choice of trims: Urban, Color & Technic Jan 11, 2013 ... http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-A-less-guilty-Domino-s-Pizza-order-delivered-via-MyCar-nEV-r-115mi-tp4656352.html EVLN: A less-guilty Domino's Pizza order, delivered via MyCar nEV r:115mi ... the company's new electric MyCar ... The electric car manufacturing company has worked out a deal with the Domino's Pizza franchises ... Jul 08, 2012 ... http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Redonkulous-EV-sound-requirement-spoofed-by-Domino-s-as-ads-tp4573360.html EVLN: Redonkulous EV sound requirement spoofed by Domino's as ads Domino’s Takes Electric Vehicle Sound Effects To Their Hilarious Conclusion Apr 20, 2012 https://www.trefis.com/stock/f/articles/416898/a-closer-look-at-fords-china-developments/2017-08-28 A Closer Look At Ford's China Developments Aug 28, 2017... growing popularity of EVs in China as the country tries to tackle increasing pollution, Ford Motors recently partnered with (joint venture) Anhui Zotye Automobile ... ... http://www.autonews.com/article/20170828/OEM04/170829799/ford-evs Ford will ease into EVs Aug 27, 2017 Ford sees hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles playing a central role in ... China, Ford is creating a separate brand to sell EVs ... ... http://gearsofbiz.com/ford-wants-to-build-electric-vehicles-in-china/35445 Ford wants to build electric vehicles in China Gears Of Biz-Aug 24, 2017 (Reuters) – Ford Motor is exploring setting up a joint venture with Chinese firm Anhui Zotye Automobile Co to build electric passenger vehicles in China under a ... For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.neocities.org} -- Sent from: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/ _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
