Domino’s Innovation Center to Test Concepts Like Self-Driving Delivery – Robotics Business Review

Domino’s is excited to announce the grand opening of its Innovation Garage – a new space where team members will focus on collaborative innovation with cutting-edge technology. The new 33,000-square-foot, two-story building in Ann Arbor features an open-concept design space for 150 Domino’s team members, as well as a fully-functioning pizza theater that project-based teams can use to develop and test new technology in a store setting.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Domino’s Pizza is set to open a new space for teams to collaborate on, create and test new ideas at its Domino’s Innovation Garage. The company plans to celebrate its grand opening on Wednesday, Aug. 21.

The new 33,000-square-foot, two-story building has an open-concept design space for 150 of Domino’s team members, including collaboration workspaces, private meeting rooms, and a “fully functioning pizzat theater”, which includes areas to develop and test new technology, such as ordering kiosks and a carryout tracker, in a store setting. The Innovation Garage will also have a dedicated space for testing delivery innovations, including the GPS delivery tracking experience, the customer interface on autonomous pizza delivery vehicles, as well as the Nuro R2, an unmanned vehicle that will test pizza deliveries later this year.

The new 33,000-square-foot, two-story building in Ann Arbor features an open-concept design space for 150 Domino’s team members, as well as a fully-functioning pizza theater that project-based teams can use to develop and test new technology in a store setting.

“Having a hub for our community of smart, creative, and dynamic team members to develop our brand and take it to the next level is important for our continued success,” said Kelly Garcia, chief technology officer at Domino’s. “We’re proud to now have a space dedicated to learning, exploring, testing and launching new ideas in a way that only Domino’s can do.”

Domino’s said it had global retail sales of more than $13.5 billion in 2018, with nearly $6.6 billion in the U.S. The company said emphasis on technology innovation has helped the company achieve more than half of all global retail sales in 2018 from digital channels, including ordering platforms via Google Home, Facebook Messenger, Apple Watch, Amazon Echo, and Twitter. In 2017, the company began testing self-driving vehicle delivery, and in June it announced a partnership with Nuro for additional exploration and testing of autonomous pizza delivery.