Ford gearing up its self-driving tests in Miami
Motor manufacturer Ford has been partnering with Domino’s to use self-driving vehicles to deliver pizzas in Miami.
In a blog posted last week, Sherif Marakby, Ford Vice President, Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification, commented: “What we learn from this customer experience research will be applied to the design of our purpose-built self-driving vehicle that we plan to launch in 2021 to support the expansion of our service.
“The types of questions we’re trying to answer include:
- Before a self-driving vehicle makes a delivery, how will employees stock it and send it off?
- At the end of its journey, how will customers interact with the vehicle to retrieve their food or groceries, and how far from their homes are they willing to walk to get it?
- What benefits could and should people get from a self-driving experience?”
Marakby added: “From the outset we understand there are both hurdles and benefits to self-driving delivery in cities and we intend to learn all of these ins and outs so that we can serve people in a way that’s most intuitive and convenient.
“Our Domino’s pilot is already up and running in Miami, and we’re finalizing plans to launch one with Postmates in March.”
As previously reported, Ford announced that it was working with Postmates on autonomous delivery vehicles in January.
Back in August last year, Ford also announced that it working with Domino’s on self-driving pizza deliveries in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
