Domino’s Pizza Opens Innovation Garage, Features Nuro’s R2 Unmanned Vehicle

Domino’s Pizza Inc. in Ann Arbor Township today announced the opening of the Domino’s Innovation Garage, a stand-alone workplace where employee teams collaborate on, create, and test new ideas. Located on the campus of Domino’s Farms, the grand opening is scheduled for Wed., Aug. 21
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Domino’s Innovation Garage
Domino’s Pizza is opening its Innovation Garage, a workplace designed for employee collaboration. // Photo courtesy of Domino’s Pizza Inc.

Domino’s Pizza Inc. in Ann Arbor Township today announced the opening of the Domino’s Innovation Garage, a stand-alone workplace where employee teams collaborate on, create, and test new ideas. Located on the campus of Domino’s Farms, the grand opening is scheduled for Wed., Aug. 21.

The 33,000-square-foot, two-story building has an open-concept design space for up to 150 people, along with offering collaboration workspaces, private meeting rooms, and a fully-functioning “pizza” theater. Project-based teams will use the theater to develop and test new technology such as ordering kiosks and a carryout tracker, all in a store-like setting.

“Domino’s Innovation Garage is focused on accelerating Domino’s spirit of creativity and collaboration,” says 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 garage also has 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,” says 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.”

Founded in 1960, Domino’s Pizza ranks among the world’s top public restaurant brands with a global enterprise of more than 16,300 stores in over 85 markets. Domino’s had global retail sales of over $13.5 billion in 2018, with nearly $6.6 billion in the U.S. and more than $6.9 billion internationally.