Pizza Hut looks to driverless deliveries

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - Pizza Hut is looking at driverless pizza deliveries in vehicles that could one day even cook the pizza.  The pizza chain is teaming up with Toyota on the self-driving vehicle.

It helped Toyota unveil a concept car called e-Palette at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"In our ongoing and relentless pursuit to own and define the modern pizza experience for our customers, we are focused on technology-based solutions that enable our team members and drivers to deliver even better customer experiences," said Artie Starrs, President, Pizza Hut, U.S.

Toyota plans to start testing of the e-Palette Vehicle Concept in United States as early as 2020.

For Pizza Hut, the e-Palette solution could support the company's delivery business in the future or, given the flexibility of the e-Palette design, could even serve as a mobile kitchen.  It's not inconceivable, that one day, the pizza could cook in the vehicle as it is delivering it so the customer would literally get a pizza right out of the oven.

As for Toyota, it envisions the concept vehicle being used across a wide-range of industries, from ride-sharing to mobile homes to even being used for on-demand stores to drive to customers.

The car maker envisions that the e-Palette Concept will be made available in three sizes.  The company says that because the floor is completely flat, equipment can be installed in accordance with the user's needs, such as ride sharing specifications, hotel room specifications and retail shopping specifications.