Domino's, Ford to Test Pizza Delivery via Driverless Cars

Megalith

Megalith

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Ford is teaming up with Domino’s for self-driving pizza delivery tests: pies will be driven to randomly selected customers in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area in a Ford Fusion Hybrid equipped with self-driving technology. As you might expect, the tests are being conducted to gauge how everyday people will react to food deliveries by autonomous service vehicles.

...randomly selected Domino's customers in Ann Arbor will have the opportunity to receive their delivery order from a Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle, which will be manually-driven by a Ford safety engineer and staffed with researchers. Customers who agree to participate will be able to track the delivery vehicle through GPS using an upgraded version of Domino's Tracker. They will also receive text messages as the self-driving vehicle approaches that will guide them on how to retrieve their pizza using a unique code to unlock the Domino's Heatwave Compartment inside the vehicle.
 
I just don't see how this can work. To have a completely human free car just opens up all kinds of issues in my mind. How to prevent other people from taking the food while it is at a stop. How to prevent theft or damage to the car. Stopping people from hoping in the car for a free ride. Streets full of parked cars and no driveway, will the car just stop in the middle of the street. Etc...

I realize people much smarter than myself are probably thinking of these things but I still just don't see how it can work.

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DrLobotomy said:
So I have to walk out in the rain to get my pizza?

No thanks.
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Exactly. It's enough that I have to walk my happy, half naked ass to the door to get pizza. Now I have to both put on pants AND walk outside to my driveway? Sod that.
 
zamardii12 said:
Sooo many people are going to lose their jobs in the next decade. Once automation becomes the norm it's going to be crazy.
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This is what scares me the most about US politics. We really need to start working on ways to handle a county where most jobs are completed with very little human labor.
 
This is fucking stupid. I have to walk down to the car to grab my own pizza? I'm not lazy, but I'm not paying a delivery fee when I have to walk down to the street to get the pizza.
 
Seems like a bad way to go, to me. If they want to automate delivery, wouldn't a drone be much more cost effective than an automobile?
 
A lot of people think Tesla is the future of self driving but not really. Pay attention to Ford and Toyota, especially Ford as they tend to have a lot of their cars used for commercial business here in USA. People like you and me will not like self driving cars, though I actually do, but businesses don't care.
 
U-238 said:
Exactly. It's enough that I have to walk my happy, half naked ass to the door to get pizza. Now I have to both put on pants AND walk outside to my driveway? Sod that.
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From my experience. no all people put on pants to answer the door...
 
SvenBent said:
From my experience. no all people put on pants to answer the door...
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This. I used to deliver for Domino's and th amount of people that come to the door in their underwear or even just a towel. And no most of them are fat guys.
 
mcravenufo said:
I just don't see how this can work. To have a completely human free car just opens up all kinds of issues in my mind. How to prevent other people from taking the food while it is at a stop. How to prevent theft or damage to the car. Stopping people from hoping in the car for a free ride. Streets full of parked cars and no driveway, will the car just stop in the middle of the street. Etc...

I realize people much smarter than myself are probably thinking of these things but I still just don't see how it can work.

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#1 The car is locked so nobody can just get in.
#2 If you break into the car then you'll be caught on camera and the car will literally avoid that neighborhood in the future if these incidents are high.
#3 You can't prevent damage and theft but you can catch people on camera and take them to court. Just like cars with people.
#4 Most cars are fly by wire so you can't just jump in a car and drive it unless the engineers are stupid enough to left that all working.
#5 The car will likely be standing waiting for the buyer to come out and enter the key code to unlock the car to get the food.
 
JesDer said:
This is what scares me the most about US politics. We really need to start working on ways to handle a county where most jobs are completed with very little human labor.
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Socialism and UBI is the way to go. A lot of people don't wanna hear it, and will associate this with communism but without buying power we will have a financial collapse.
 
zamardii12 said:
Sooo many people are going to lose their jobs in the next decade. Once automation becomes the norm it's going to be crazy.
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JesDer said:
This is what scares me the most about US politics. We really need to start working on ways to handle a county where most jobs are completed with very little human labor.
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UBI is the best solution that i've heard of so far. It's sad that there are so many people that still believe the old idea that new innovation leads to new jobs is going to hold true. Capitalism wants cheap labor to maximize profits. As technology advances exponentially and as that technology decreases in cost exponentially it's inevitable that humans will be replaced en-mass.

Truck drivers will probably be the first swath replaced in the next 5 years.
 
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As others have said, this won't work with the traditional pizza delivery model of "My American ass is answering the door naked in a towel and you're lucky I went to that effort."

However, honestly, how hard would it be to rig up a short-range drone that delivers actually TO the door. You get a text/phone that your pizza has arrived and drops it in a pizza parachute. What can go wrong?
 
travisty said:
UBI is the best solution that i've heard of so far. It's sad that there are so many people that still believe the old idea that new innovation leads to new jobs is going to hold true. Capitalism wants cheap labor to maximize profits. As technology advances exponentially and as that technology decreases in cost exponentially it's inevitable that humans will be replaced en-mass.

Truck drivers will probably be the first swath replaced in the next 5 years.
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And as population increases more jobs will be needed.
 
mcravenufo said:
And as population increases more jobs will be needed.
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1. Population growth is decreasing and will probably plateau around 10-11 billion. This alone puts our current 'exponential growth' economic model in jeopardy
2. If the jobs are already mostly automated by cheap employees (robots) which have very little hourly pay (maintenance) it's simple to add in a new robot which requires no training.
3. No amount of population growth will offset even 5% job loss. Job loss numbers are expected in the 50-70% range over the next 10-20 years.

Edit: Added bullet 3
 
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receive their delivery order from a Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle, which will be manually-driven by a Ford safety engineer and staffed with researchers.
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A manually driven autonomous vehicle?
 
Two companies that deserve each other. One makes shit, the other makes, well, shit, but are also cunts, (ford).

At least you don't need to tip a car, or is that going to be part of the ai feelings garbage in that it won't give the code unless you give it change?
 
DrLobotomy said:
So I have to walk out in the rain to get my pizza?

No thanks.
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I'm sure we'll have plenty of bots that will be able to go out and get it for us if any of these designs are an indication of what's to come. Personally would love to have a Boston Dynamics BigDog. I can see it now, go fetch my pizza doggo, and kick a dent in the car for it being late.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/humanoids
 
I agree with many others here, while it is a cool concept and all, the whole reason I am paying for delivery in the first place is so i DON'T have to leave my house.
 
liffie420 said:
I agree with many others here, while it is a cool concept and all, the whole reason I am paying for delivery in the first place is so i DON'T have to leave my house.
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Driverless cars provide Last Mile, someone will figure out how to automate the Last Foot. I think drones are the in thing, but honestly a combination of driverless car and then a smaller robot will be the solution.
 
So does this mean I don't have to tip? I am all for it then. Fucking double dipping pizza places.
 
zamardii12 said:
Sooo many people are going to lose their jobs in the next decade. Once automation becomes the norm it's going to be crazy.
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Decade is a bit optimistic. I mean, you forget people...and they really like to fuck with things to a negative way. We'll create such a buttfuckery of policy that any sort of improvement to way of life will be vilified by the sort term problems these cause because we always fail to recognize changing economies and hold to the past.
 
NickJames said:
So does this mean I don't have to tip? I am all for it then. Fucking double dipping pizza places.
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No the WORST part is that in most pizza places the delivery fee doesn't even go to the driver, that is BULLSHIT IMO, especially for the nationwide chains. I once worked for DoubleDave's about 20 years ago, when they only have maybe 4 stores, not only did you get paid minimum wage, which most pizza places do NOT pay drivers, they get paid like a waiter, the delivery fee always went to the driver.
 
liffie420 said:
No the WORST part is that in most pizza places the delivery fee doesn't even go to the driver, that is BULLSHIT IMO, especially for the nationwide chains. I once worked for DoubleDave's about 20 years ago, when they only have maybe 4 stores, not only did you get paid minimum wage, which most pizza places do NOT pay drivers, they get paid like a waiter, the delivery fee always went to the driver.
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It is complete bullshit. Why should my $3 go towards the delivery place and not the driver, he's the one wasting his gas and trying to weave through traffic to give me my pizza.
 
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