Considering the countless products and services featured at January’s Detroit Auto Show and reported in current auto news, it becomes difficult to choose a single, defining headline. Some served to represent the natural evolution of automotive trends, while others introduced long overdue advancements in technology.
Of course, the key highlight in any auto show is the unveiling of technologies that denote a change in the way that we live our lives. Ford’s newest announcement in terms of autonomous driving technology is a perfect example of this.
And no, we’re not talking about self-driving vehicles for use by the general public. We’re talking about damn pizza delivery, as profiled here:
As previewed by the TODAY show and various other media outlets, both Domino’s and Pizza Hut are among the global food providers looking to harness autonomous driving technologies. While the former has entered into a partnership with Ford to use an evolved version of the Ford Fusion, while the latter has announced with their plans to partner with Toyota as part of the automaker’s e-Palette platform.
Sure, the loneliest of pizza enthusiasts will miss the awkward conversations and judgmental looks re: the extra order of cheese bread, and delivery drivers might be forced to look back on the lousy tips of yesterday, but this is a real game changer.
Unfortunately, Pizza Hut’s plans parallel a recent episode of the Netflix series ‘Black Mirror’ where an autonomous pizza delivery vehicle is responsible for a homicide. Like all self-driving technologies, we’d like to think that there would be protocols built in to preserve human life. Then again, do you really want to reach inside of an automated pizza oven capable of 70 mph, just because a creepy electronic voice calmly assures that you that it’s perfectly safe to do so?
Which begs the question:
Pizza. Is it worth dying for?
