In the future, there may no longer be a need to tip the pizza-delivery guy.
Of course, you may have to work out how to tip an autonomous car: Ford and Domino?s Pizza are working together to develop self-driving vehicles that handle autonomous deliveries. The two companies will conduct tests of the vehicles over the next several weeks in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Randomly selected customers will have the chance to receive their orders from a specially outfitted Ford Fusion hybrid autonomous research vehicle.
Customers can track the delivery status thanks to the cars’ GPS. And when the vehicle arrives, they?ll receive a text with a unique code that unlocks a specially designed heated compartment?similar to that fitted to Domino’s DXP vehicles?so they can go to the car and retrieve their pizzas. While the novelty of an autonomous vehicle arriving in their driveway may spark curiosity among customers, the research is more about studying the ease with which they use the delivery system rather than their interest in the technical underpinnings of the vehicle itself. For Ford, these sorts of deliveries could someday become a linchpin in business plans involving autonomous vehicles. For Domino’s the project helps answer questions about how cranky their customers might be when they need to receive their pizzas in the driveway rather than by simply opening their door.

?We?re interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery,? said Russell Weiner, pre...