Ford and Domino’s Pizza are teaming up to test self-driving pizza delivery cars in Michigan, as part of an effort to better understand how customers respond to and interact with autonomous vehicles.

In the coming weeks, randomly selected Domino’s customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan will have the option to accept pizza deliveries from a Ford Fusion Hybrid autonomous research vehicle. But the car won’t be driving itself.

Each car will be driven by a Ford safety engineer, with other researchers onboard, who will zero in on the last 50 feet of the customer experience.

Sherif Marakby, Vice President of Ford Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification, described the project as ethnographic research in an interview with The Verge. “We don’t want to wait until we get everything done on the tech and remove the driver.  We’re trying to start doing the research. We still are working on the technology, because it’s not ready to be put on public streets,” he said. “It’s simulating that the vehicle is in autonomous mode.”

Those who participate in the test can track their order through a Domino’s app and will receive a unique code that matches the last four digits of their phone number to be used to unlock the so-called Heatwave Compartment — a container that keeps pizzas warm in the back of the car. Information will be communicated through screens and speakers on the exterior of the cars.

“We’re interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery,” Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA, said in a statement. “The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience.”

Areas of focus include how willing are people to come outside to pick up their orders, the way they approach the car, and how they interact with the screen outside of the vehicle to get the food.     

Marakby said this is the first of multiple partnership between Ford and other companies as part of efforts to ramp up autonomous vehicle testing. “The key thing is that our development is going to benefit from these partnerships,” Marakby said. “We will incorporate changes when we launch at scale in 2021, whether it’s perishable or non-perishable deliveries.”

Ford, like many other carmakers, has invested heavily in autonomous technology, with an eye toward bringing self-driving cars to market by 2021. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to invest $1 billion in Argo AI, an artificial intelligence startup.

“The human aspect is the most significant piece here. We know we can create technology, but it has to be based on the human element of how we’re using the AVs,” Marakby said.

Domino’s has experimented with different (and sometimes gimmicky) delivery technologies, as well, including a Siri-like digital assistant that can receive orders and a fleet of delivery robots.

Several members of a White House cybersecurity council resigned last week in protest over President Donald Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville and the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, among other issues.

In a resignation letter obtained by NextGov, eight members of the 28-person National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) said that the president’s “actions have threatened the security of the homeland I took an oath to protect.” The letter states that the Trump administration is not “adequately attentive to the pressing national security matters within the NIAC’s purview,” and that Trump has paid “insufficient attention” to the growing threats that the US faces to its cybersecurity.

The letter also points to Trump’s failure to condemn neo-Nazis and white nationalists following this month’s violence in Charlottesville, as well as his decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement, which the signees cite as evidence of the president’s “disregard for the security of American communities.”

“The moral infrastructure of our Nation is the foundation on which our physical infrastructure is built,” the letter reads. “The Administration’s actions undermine that foundation.” 

Three Obama-era officials — DJ Patil, Cristin Dorgelo, and Christy Goldfuss — confirmed their resignations from the council on Twitter over the weekend. Eight names were removed from the NIAC website, Defense One reports.

Established in 2001 under an executive order from President George W. Bush, the NIAC advises the president on critical infrastructure security. Last week’s resignations came ahead of a new NIAC report that called for the US to strengthen its cyber defense systems, adding that the current state of US infrastructure is a in a “pre-9/11 moment.” (Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta used similar language to describe the state of US cybersecurity infrastructure in 2012.)

Two White House business councils were disbanded earlier this month after several executives raised concerns over Trump’s response to the Charlottesville violence.

Australia will deploy a fleet of drones to patrol its shores for sharks next month, as part of an effort to enhance beach safety. As Reuters reports, the drones are equipped with AI-powered software that can distinguish sharks from sharks, boats, and other marine life in real-time. The so-called “Little Ripper” drones were first used in a trial program last year.

Nabin Sharma, a research associate at the University of Technology Sydney’s School of Software, tells Reuters that the system aims to improve the accuracy of aerial shark detection, adding that humans are only able to identify sharks with 20 to 30 percent accuracy when analyzing aerial imagery. The drone-based system can detect sharks with 90 percent accuracy, Sharma said.

Researchers trained the system to identify sharks using publicly available aerial photos and video. If a shark is detected, the drones will alert swimmers through a megaphone, and could also deploy a life raft and emergency beacon for people in danger. Little Ripper Group, the company that developed the drones, is also working on an “electronic shark repellent,” company co-founder Paul Scully-Power tells Reuters.

Earlier this year, Australia began installing protective nets to protect swimmers from sharks, following a series of attacks. (Australia ranks second behind the US in unprovoked shark incidents.) But some researchers have questioned the effectiveness of underwater nets, and environmental advocates say they could harm other wildlife.

Apple removed several popular Iranian apps from its app stores this week, telling developers that the apps were blocked due to US sanctions against Iran. The move was met with criticism from Iran’s telecommunications minister and has sparked a backlash among Iranian iOS developers, who have faced increasingly tight restrictions in recent months.

On Thursday, Apple removed Snapp, an Uber-like ride-hailing app, from its App Store, after having previously a range of other apps, including DelionFoods, a food delivery service. The company has also prevented developers from updating their apps in recent months, according to TechRasa, an Iranian technology site that reported on the crackdown earlier this week. Apple began removing Iranian apps that facilitate “transactions for businesses or entities based in Iran” in January.

Apple does not have an App Store in Iran, but Iranian developers have created several apps for sale in other App Stores, and iPhones are routinely smuggled in to the country, despite an official ban on their sale. An estimated 48 million smartphones have been sold in Iran, a country of 80 million people, and there are an estimated 47 million social media users. (The country has for years blocked access to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.)

“Under the US sanctions regulations, the App Store cannot host, distribute, or do business with apps or developers connected to certain US embargoed countries,” Apple said in a message to developers affected by the crackdown, according to an online petition to reverse the decision. “This area of law is complex and constantly changing. If the existing restrictions shift, we encourage you to resubmit your app for inclusion on the App Store.”

An Apple spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the message to The New York Times, but declined to comment further. The petition had garnered more than 2,300 signatures as of Friday morning, and developers have voiced their frustration on Twitter under the hashtag #StopRemovingIranianApps.

Google, notably, has not taken similar measures against Iranian apps on its Play Store. The company allows free Android apps on its Play Store in Iran, though it prohibits paid apps.

It is not clear whether Apple is responding to pressure from the Trump administration, which imposed a new set of sanctions against Iran this month. Under President Barack Obama, the US eased restrictions on technology companies that provide communication services in Iran, including email, chat, and social media services.

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s newly appointed telecommunications minister, criticized Apple’s decision in a Persian-language tweet, noting that Apple commands 11 percent of the country’s smartphone market. “Respecting customer rights is a principle today that Apple hasn’t abided by,” the minister added, according to a translation from the Times. “We will legally pursue the omission of apps.”

Earlier this week, Jahromi said that negotiations were underway to remove the government’s ban on Twitter, which remains inaccessible for the population but is frequently used by Iranian leaders, including its conservative Supreme Leader. Jahromi, who became Iran’s youngest-ever minister this week, has faced criticism for his alleged role in conducting surveillance and interrogations during massive anti-government protests in 2009.

According to the Change.org petition, addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple’s crackdown “will have drastic effects on the startup ecosystem and economy. On one hand, we are losing touch with our most needed application and services and on the other hand, it might cause many jobs to be lost.”