{"id":337059,"date":"2017-03-29T17:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T09:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1470099"},"modified":"2017-03-29T17:00:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T09:00:25","slug":"dominos-and-starship-technologies-will-deliver-pizza-by-robot-in-europe-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/dominos-and-starship-technologies-will-deliver-pizza-by-robot-in-europe-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Domino\u2019s and Starship Technologies will deliver pizza by robot in Europe this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve said it once, we\u2019ll say it again\u2013\u00a0the food delivery robots are coming<\/a>! This time, they\u2019ll be carting piping hot pizzas to Domino\u2019s customers.<\/p>\n

The tech-loving pizza company joked about driverless delivery robots in 2015. Remember its \u201cDomi-No-Driver<\/a>\u201d campaign?\u00a0But now it\u2019s making good on the April Fool\u2019s gag. Domino\u2019s has just\u00a0inked a partnership with Starship Technologies<\/a>\u00a0to begin using its\u00a0\u201cpersonal delivery devices\u201d this summer in Hamburg, Germany.<\/span> If all goes well there, Domino\u2019s and Starship intend to bring\u00a0robot pizza delivery to\u00a0the\u00a0Netherlands as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Starship\u2019s\u00a0devices have the look of a\u00a0self-driving food cart, rather\u00a0than some\u00a0science fiction humanoid model.\u00a0They travel on six wheels at a clip of\u00a04 miles per hour, and can carry just over 40 lbs. of cargo. In Hamburg, the robots will deliver pizzas within a one-mile radius.<\/p>\n

Starship is facing significant competition in the burgeoning market for \u201cprofessional service robotics.\u201d Competitors range from fellow startups like Marble<\/a>\u00a0to established players\u00a0like Boston Dynamics<\/a>. \u00a0The\u00a0International Federation for Robotics<\/a> (IFR) forecasts that between 2016 and 2019, logistics businesses will have begun\u00a0using at least 175,000 robots to provide their services.\u00a0That compares to UPS\u2019 global fleet of around 100,000<\/a> trucks today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A customer takes a pizza from Starship Technologies\u2019 delivery robot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Launched by\u00a0Skype co-founders\u00a0Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis in 2014,\u00a0Starship Technologies also recently inked food delivery partnerships with DoorDash<\/a> and Postmates<\/a>\u00a0in the US. But Domino\u2019s has yet to offer pizza delivery by robot here.<\/p>\n

Many retailers and restaurants\u00a0are\u00a0waiting to see how robot delivery tech shapes up, but also how\u00a0the rules for using these\u00a0devices are set in the US market. Virginia, and as of this week Idaho<\/a>, allow delivery by robot today. Other states and federal US laws are still to be determined..<\/p>\n

Domestically, Domino\u2019s has\u00a0offered other tech-enabled and entertaining\u00a0ways to buy a pie, including by Tweeting a pizza emoji to @dominos, or requesting delivery from drivers of\u00a0the Domino\u2019s DXP \u201cultimate pizza delivery vehicle,\u201d a modified Chevy Spark.\u00a0In New Zealand, Domino\u2019s has also begun delivery by drones in a partnership with Flirtey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, tech has\u00a0become an international\u00a0marketing gimmick\u00a0for\u00a0Domino\u2019s<\/a>.\u00a0But learning what works, and doesn\u2019t, in the next wave of logistics tech\u00a0could spell serious cost savings, and not just near-term buzz, for\u00a0any major restaurant chain\u00a0that delivers. After all, robots may need maintenance, but they don\u2019t call in sick unexpectedly or hop between employers like the people they could displace.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Starship Technologies<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" We’ve said it once, we’ll say it again–\u00a0the food delivery robots are coming! This time, they’ll be carting piping hot pizzas to Domino’s customers.
\nThe tech-loving pizza company joked about driverless delivery robots in 2015. Remember its “Domi-No-Driver” campaign?\u00a0But now it’s making good on the April Fool’s gag. Domino’s has… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-337059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}