The ultimate pizza delivery vehicle
Manufacturers usually come over all wild for the SEMA show in Las Vegas, but Toyota has gone for delicious instead, writes Damien O’Carroll.
According to Ed Laukes, vice-president of Toyota division marketing in the US, ‘‘as the flagship Toyota truck, the Tundra is a workhorse in the truest sense. Its great strengths are its extreme capability and eminent versatility, and what better way to illustrate that than by turning it into something completely unique . . .’’
And because it is America, that ‘‘something unique’’ is a hydrogen fuel cell electric-powered, pizzacooking robotic vehicle. Yes, really.
Built by Toyota’s Motorsports Technical Centre (MTCI) for the SEMA show in Las Vegas, the Tundra Pie Pro – as it is called – included co-operation from Pizza Hut, along with engineering from Nachi Robotic Systems.
The starting point was a Tundra SR5 that was torn down to a bare rolling chassis and then reassembled from the ground up. The conventional drivetrain was removed and replaced with a hydrogen fuel-cell electric power unit adapted from the Toyota Mirai.
The Tundra’s tray was then converted into a virtual pizza factory on wheels – a totally selfcontained kitchen that comprises a fridge, a pair of computer-guided articulating robotic arms and a portable, high-efficiency conveyor oven. Like the truck itself, all kitchen components are powered by the hydrogen fuel cell electric powertrain.
Toyota says that from start to finish, the pizza-cooking process takes between six and seven minutes. When the process begins, the first robotic arm opens the fridge and removes the desired pizza, places it on the oven conveyor and then, like a good, environmentally-conscious robot arm, returns to close the fridge door.
The pizza then travels through a high-speed ventless oven and, when it pops out the other side is removed by the second robotic arm, which places it on the cutting board, divides it into six identical slices, boxes it up, and delivers it to the customer awaiting on the side of the Tundra.
Toyota says that the Tundra Pie Pro’s environmental impact is virtually nil – the only by-products are water vapour emissions and delicious pizza, which are certainly the kind of emissions we could get with.
‘‘We’ve had a hand in putting together all sorts of custom Toyota vehicles over the years, from highperformance racecars to one-ofa-kind show vehicles,’’ said MTCI’s Marty Schwerter, ‘‘but the concept and technology used in this Tundra presented a unique challenge.’’
Unique, but delicious as well.