Domino's to start robo-deliveries in Germany

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By Matthew Griffin Future Transport 30th March 2017

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Automation appears to be the way of the future, and now even the humble pizza delivery driver is under threat

The food delivery robots, and drones, are coming. The technology is improving, people seem to be more receptive to the concept than they have ever been before, and increasingly the regulators are becoming the industry’s new cheerleaders.

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Now Domino’s want in on the action, and unlike Amazon and 7-Eleven who are rolling out autonomous drone delivery systems Domino’s thinks their future is six wheeled and travels at 4 miles per hour – which means that even local deliveries could take at least fifteen minutes – and they’ve partnered with Starship Technologies, who’ve also inked deals with DoorDash and Postmates to make it happen.

In 2015 the tech loving pizza company joked about driverless delivery robots, and do you remember their “Domi-No-Driver” campaign? No, me neither, but now they’re serious and they’re going to begin using their new six wheeled robot friends to deliver pizzas in Hamburg, Germany in the next couple of months.

Capable of carrying a whopping 40lbs of pizza – seriously, who eats that much pizza, don’t answer – the robots will deliver pizzas within a one-mile radius. And with forecasts suggesting that by 2019 logistics firms will be using over 175,000 robots, which kicks even UPS’s huge delivery network of 100,000 vans into the shade the future for robot companies looks rosy – even if the same can’t be said for the people they’ll one day replace.

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However, and someone has to ask it – what happens when one of these things gets kicked over or turned upside down by a bunch of teenagers, or a mob of angry ex-pizza delivery drivers? Nothing that’s what – cold pizza and a robot that’s going to be spinning its wheels until its battery runs out. Ha ha, silly robot…

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.