Domino’s Autonomous Fleet Management- A Concept

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The year is 2025. Domino’s Pizza is now operating a fleet of more than 2000 autonomous driving vehicles in the city of San Francisco — which has resulted in quicker delivery times, and the profit margins for Domino’s have increased manifold. A fleet of autonomous cars automatically carries the pizzas from the kitchen to the customer’s address. Instead of having more than 2000 drivers, this entire system is now managed by 1 single person: the Fleet Manager.

PROLOGUE

1. The year is 2025 and foldable devices will be very common, so the Design needs to be fluid.
   Source: Read on Bloomberg
2. Dominos is partnering with NURO, a robotics company specializing in the self-driving vehicle segment majorly for goods transportation.
   Source: Read on The Verge
3. Majority of the basic decisions will be done by AI by 2025
   Source: Read on Pew Research

ABOUT NURO AND ITS VEHICLES

Nuro is an American robotics company based in Mountain View, California and founded by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson. They aim at accelerating the benefits of Robotics to everyday life.

A Nuro Delivery Vehicle has the following features.

1. All the vehicles are connected with each other over a network.
2. The vehicle is equipped with sensors on all sides along with a camera on the top to take video footage.
3. When any Nuro vehicle moves from spot A to spot B it collects information about the road and weather conditions, traffic and is shared with all other vehicles in the network in real-time.
4. If the vehicle recognizes any irregular weather or road condition, a remote driver takes over the control of the vehicle.
5. The vehicle is designed to self- sacrifice in case of an accident.
6. The engine and battery health is monitored continuously.
7. While collecting the order from the vehicle, the customer has to enter an OTP that they have received. Only then the door opens.
8. ETA of goods gets more accurate due to the combination of real-time traffic data surrounding the vehicle and across the route till the destination.
9. If there is an issue unlocking the door with the customers OTP. Customer service executives can be reached and they can manually identify the customers with the cameras provided on the vehicle and remotely unlock the door.

Source: Read on Nuro.ai

Considering the above features and way of operation, the Fleet Manager gets multiple advantages to control the fleet while getting additional responsibilities as well. The AI algorithms will be very strong and capable of doing basic decisions. In cases when human intervention is required (ie of a Fleet Manager), it will aid in the decision making process by providing required data.

SCENARIOS

1. Scenario A- A customer orders Pizza from the online platform. The AI locates the nearest vehicle that can fulfill this order. And then the customer is given an ETA and the order is delivered to him.
2. Scenario B- A customer orders Pizza from the online platform. The AI doesn’t find any vehicle nearby to fulfill the order. So a new vehicle is assigned this task which was stationary/at rest till now.
3. Scenario C- A customer orders Pizza from the online platform. AI figures that there is no vehicle available to fulfill this order nearby or is stationary at the moment. Then the AI assigns the task to a delivery agent and informs the Fleet Manager about it.
4. Scenario D- A customer orders Pizza from the online platform. AI figures that the area is not serviceable. So it intimates the Fleet Manager about it. Then the fleet manager assigns a delivery agent for the order.
5. Scenario E- A customer orders Pizza from the online platform. AI identifies that the route has bad weather or road conditions ( live traffic and weather condition reports are shared across the network). The Fleet Manager is informed about the scenario. He then either assigns a remote driver to take control of the vehicle to deliver the order or controls it by himself.
6. Scenario F- An order is halfway through and is stuck in traffic or bad weather condition. The Fleet Manager is informed about this and he then assigns a remote driver to take control of the vehicle to deliver the order or controls it by himself.
7. Scenario G- An order is halfway through and the vehicle stops functioning. Then the delivery manager then tries to identify the issue and assigns a remote driver to take control of the vehicle to deliver the order or controls it by himself.
8. Scenario H- An order is halfway through and the vehicle stops functioning. Then the delivery manager then tries to identify the issue. If the issue is not identified or is impossible to remotely control the vehicle, then an engineer is assigned the task of moving the vehicle to a service center and a delivery agent is assigned to deliver the orders. Also the customer is informed about the issue and the extended ETA.
9. Scenario I- An order is halfway through and the vehicle gets into an accident and performs self-sacrifice as it is programmed to. Then, in this case, all the orders are remade and the Fleet Manager is left with the task of assigning the orders to other delivery agents and/or delivery vehicles. The AI aids in this decision making process by marking the nearest possible vehicles and delivery agents with live weather and road condition tracking.
10. Scenario J- An order is reached to the customer but the door is not opening with the OTP, then they can reach the customer care executives/Fleet Manager who can identify the customers manually with the help of the camera on the vehicle and remotely unlock the door.
11. Scenario K- A customer orders Pizza from the online platform. AI figures that there is no vehicle available to fulfill this order nearby or is stationary at the moment. Even a delivery agent is not available at this moment, then the Fleet Manager is informed who can request for another vehicle or delivery agent from nearby areas to fulfill the order from his area.

Considering the above scenarios the Fleet Manager multiple roles and responsibilities.

FLEET MANAGER ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Overviewing the vehicles fulfilling the current orders.
2. Viewing the vehicles and delivery agents at rest.
3. Viewing the vehicles in service centers and requesting one in case of emergency.
4. In case of an accident or vehicle becoming non-functional or is unavailable, assigning delivery agents for orders.
5. Checking the availability of the Delivery agents and requesting for more if required from nearby areas.
6. Assigning a remote control driver for vehicles.
7. Remotely driving a vehicle to deliver the order.
8. Aiding the customers to collect the order by remotely unlocking the door by identifying them manually with the camera on the vehicle.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

Information Architecture

Post login/Signup these following modules are available on to the system for the Fleet Manager.

1. Dashboard- The dashboard will visually track, analyzes and displays key performance indicators (KPI), metrics and key data points to monitor the health of the Fleet.
2. Emergency- The Emergency Module has incidents that require special attention from the Fleet Manager. Classified into the following.
3. Accidents- A vehicle has met with an accident then the Fleet Manager has to assign the orders to other delivery agents and/or delivery vehicles. The AI aids in this decision making process by marking the nearest possible vehicles and delivery agents with live weather and road condition tracking.
4. Bad Weather/Road Conditions- The Fleet Manager then assigns a remote driver to take control of the vehicle to deliver the orders. Or sometimes he himself might take over the control of the vehicle.
5. Vehicle stopped working- The Fleet Manager then assigns a remote driver to take control of the vehicle to deliver the orders. Or sometimes he himself might take over the control of the vehicle. Else assign a engineer to transfer the vehicle to service center and another delivery agent to fulfill the order.
6. Orders List- List of complete and Incomplete Orders. Vehicles /Delivery agents working to fulfill the orders. Request for extra vehicles or Delivery agents from other areas can be made if required.
7. Vehicles List- List of vehicles currently fulfilling the orders. Their information. List of vehicles at rest. List of vehicles at the service center. Request for vehicles from the Service center or nearby areas if required
8. Delivery Agents List- List of Delivery agents currently fulfilling the orders. Their information. List of Delivery agents at rest. Request for Delivery agents from nearby areas.
9. Analytics- Analytics of Revenue, Places of orders and customers.
10. Notifications- Notifications related to Orders, Vehicles, Emergencies and Delivery agents. If a customer is unable to collect his order, then remote unlocking of the door after manual verification is done from notifications.
11. Help- Any topic of help that the fleet manager requires.
12. Profile- Profile of the Fleet Manager.