Ordering takeout may be one of the most eminently practical uses of a car infotainment system, so it’s a little surprising we haven’t seen it happen before now. Ford Sync, however, will soon be at least opening the door, as a partnership with Domino’s Pizza will let you order one carefully-chosen meal by issuing stentorian commands to your speaker system. The din of a press event isn’t the best place to try out anything audio-related, but we got a chance to simulate the experience pretty successfully, albeit without the reward of pizza at the end.
Here’s how you order pizza with your car
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
The problem with this hands-free system is that its voice controls currently don’t take you further than “yes” and “no” — you pre-designate one favorite meal on Domino’s site or mobile app and then essentially tell your car to order “the regular.” You’d get a lot more options by just putting your local pizza place on speed dial, even if there’s a certain appeal to cutting out the human factor, as well as the convenience of Ford Sync reading out your order status. But it also opens up the appealing possibility that other companies will follow suit: imagine a Seamless car app that lets you pick a restaurant and a dish to have waiting for you when you get home, or one that uses your location data to make sure a delivery doesn’t come too early. Not merely an internet of pizzas, one might say, but a complete internet of foods.
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