Toyota and Pizza Hut Unveil New Mobile Robot Pizza Factory Concept

Toyota and Pizza Hut have revealed a new automated pizza-making robot prototype that cooks pizzas on the way to customers’ homes at the Specialty Equipment Market Association's annual automotive specialty products show in Las Vegas. The concept is called "The Kitchen," the operation includes a refrigerator, a pair of robotic arms made by Japanese company Nachi and a portable high-performance conveyor oven, all of which run on the truck's hydrogen fuel-cell electric powertrain. Pizza Hut has yet to test the mobile pizza factory on city streets but sees potential not only for the wow factor, but for delivering fresher pizzas to a wider area potentially which from a practical point of view are too far away from a standard Pizza Hut delivery outlet. "We are always looking to find ways to bring the oven closer to the doors of our consumers," said Nicolas Burquier, chief operations officer for Pizza Hut. Toyota and Pizza Hut are not the first to come up with the idea of a mobile robotic pizza delivery service, U.S. start-up Zume Pizza has been working on a similar system for years. They have attracted the interest of Softbank’s Vision Fund which according to press reports has just invested $375m into the start-up with the potential for another $375m down the line