Domino’s Opens ‘Innovation Garage’ to Test New Technology – CStore Decisions

Domino’s Pizza opened a new space in Ann Arbor, Mich. called Domino’s Innovation Garage, where its teams will collaborate on, create and test new ideas.

“Domino’s Innovation Garage is focused on accelerating Domino’s spirit of creativity and collaboration,” said Kelly Garcia, Domino’s chief technology officer. “As a pizza company with a focus on technology, we want our team members to have a workspace that encourages experimentation and fosters an environment to take risks, test innovations and fail-fast so they can bring their best cutting-edge ideas to life for the brand’s customers and stores.”

The new 33,000-square-foot, two-story building has an open-concept design space for 150 Domino’s team members, collaboration workspaces, private meeting rooms and a fully-functioning pizza theater.

Project-based teams will use the pizza theater, which features the next-generation design, to develop and test new technology, such as ordering kiosks and a carryout tracker, in a store setting.

Domino’s 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 and robots such as Nuro’s R2 — an unmanned vehicle that will test pizza deliveries later this year.

In addition to future technology, the facility will hold all of Domino’s current AnyWare ordering technology, in-store technology and a quality assurance lab for testing pretotypes.

“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 Garcia. “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.”