News of the Weird
Bits and pieces of the bizarre, the horrific and the downright puzzling scooped up from various parts of the web so you don’t have to. Yer welcome.
Autonomously driven or it’s free
Domino’s, the largest pizza chain in the world (based on global sales), and autonomous vehicle startup Nuro have partnered to launch a pilot program in Houston to deliver pizzas using self-driving robot cars. A limited number of customers ordering online from Domino’s can choose to have their pizza delivered by Nuro’s R2, which is the first completely autonomous on-road delivery vehicle with regulatory approval by the U.S. Department of Transportation to operate with no occupants inside.
Customers who want to dive headfirst into a future where everything is robotic and human interaction is minimized will have to prepay for their food online, choose the autonomous delivery option, then watch their text messages for updates on the robot’s location. When it arrives, they will use a PIN to open the ‘bot and retrieve their hot pie.
“There is still so much for our brand to learn about the autonomous delivery space,” Dennis Maloney, Domino’s senior vice president and chief innovation officer said in a statement. “This program will allow us to better understand how customers respond to the deliveries, how they interact with the robot and how it affects store operations.”
Following a small partnership with Ford for autonomous deliveries that required a human occupant in the pizza company’s home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Domino’s and Nuro began working together in Houston in 2019 and had planned to begin robot deliveries within a few months. There’s a solid chance the global pandemic is responsible for both the delay in getting the driverless service off the ground and in its eventual launch before everything is quite back to normal. In any case, we expect to see more of these autonomous delivery services pop up in the coming months and years.
Your next pizza from Domino’s could be delivered by a robot | Autoblog
Transporting the dead
Egyptians were in for a treat of historical and cultural spectacle recently. A total of 22 royal Egyptian mummies – 18 kings and 4 queens – were transported from the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat. The procession covered around 5 kilometres (3.1 miles), which involved lights and ceremonies in honour of the country’s ancient pharaohs.
But these royal mummies weren’t transported by normal hearses; specially-built lorries were used, obviously decorated in a callback to ancient Egyptian civilisation. Hidden underneath are special shock-absorbers to make sure that the preserved remnants were transported as smoothly as possible.
Inside the trucks, the preserved pharaohs were transported in special nitrogen-filled boxes to help shield them from external natural elements. The roads along the long route were also cleared, while the convoy was surrounded by a motorcade and led by replica horse-drawn war chariots.
The heads of the UN cultural agency UNESCO and the World Tourism Organisation were present at the ceremony, as well as other important government figures such as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. At the new museum, a 21-gun salute was fired by canons to honour the arrival of the royal mummies.
One of the most popular pharaohs transported during the ceremony was King Ramses II who ruled Egypt for 67 years and signed the first peace treaty. The oldest of the preserved remnants was Seqenenre Tao, the last king of the 17th Dynasty, who reigned in the 16th century BC.
Though the goal of the ceremony is to transfer the pharaohs to a more civilised museum, Egyptian authorities are reportedly hoping that this spectacle will revitalise tourism for the nation – hampered in the past years by political turmoil and the pandemic.
Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg Quicktake: Now (YouTube)– Retrieved April 11/21
Steer busts out of trailer, blocks Atlanta traffic for over an hour
Local news outlet WSB-TV Atlanta reported earlier in April that a bovine escaped its trailer on a metro freeway. It reportedly roamed free for over an hour on the highway (I-285 West), causing traffic to pile up and even potentially causing a crash or two. Local news outlets were unable to confirm that the steer was the source of the crashes, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it was.
Police were called in to corral the animal. It took multiple officers to get the job done, but they couldn’t have done it without the assistance of a citizen who had rope. What methods of capture were the police attempting before some genius with rope came along, you ask? We’re not sure. The police’s Facebook post (below) doesn’t say.
You can see photos of the steer tied up to an officer’s Chevy Tahoe. Police confirmed that the animal simply fell out of a livestock trailer (c’mon people, secure your cows). The steer has since lost its sweet, sweet freedom and was returned to its owner. There’s no doubt that the grand escape and time on the run has made it the most legen-dairy steer on the farm.
Steer busts out of trailer, blocks Atlanta traffic for over an hour | Autoblog – retrieved April 11/21
Italian police use Lamborghini Huracan to transport kidney to hospital
Back in November of last year drivespark reported a story about, the Italian police department who used their Lamborghini supercar to transport a kidney to a hospital. The Italian police used the supercar to complete the 500 kilometre journey between a northern town of Padova to Rome in just 2 hours, which otherwise would take over 6 hours to complete.
The police department shared the video on their social channels, which has since gone viral. The video also came with a caption, which translated to English, reads, “Thanks to our @Lamborghini Huracan, we transported the kidney of a donor in time for transplantation to a person. “To save a life you don’t need superpowers” solidarity, technology and efficiency also help.”
The Huracan supercar used was reportedly gifted to the Italian police by Lamborghini themselves, back in 2015.
The Lamborghini Huracan in the Italian police fleet is said to be used for occasions like this, where urgent and high-priority transportation of organs, plasmas, vaccines is required. The supercar is also said to come fitted with a special coolbox at the front boot space, which keeps the organs safe when being transported.
Lamborghini Supercar Used To Transport Kidney To Hospital 500Kms Away In Just 2 Hours: Here’s How It Was Done! – DriveSpark – Retrieved April 11/21
