Houston’s busiest Chick-fil-A flies solo with new driverless delivery

This article was written by CultureMap columnist Ken Hoffman and originally appeared in CultureMap’s Hoffman’s Houston editorial series.

The next time you order “curbside delivery” from the Chick-fil-A at Kirby Drive and the Southwest Freeway, one of the nation’s most successful Chick-fil-As, don’t be surprised if your spicy chicken sandwich and waffle fries are delivered by a driverless, three-wheeled electric vehicle that looks like a cross between a Big Wheels kiddie car and the Mars Rover.

This is a first for Houston. Chick-fil-A has partnered with Factiona California-based company developing autonomous (driverless) fleets. Earlier this week, I sat down with Ain McKendrick, Faction’s founder and CEO, who explained how Chick-fil-A’s futuristic curbside delivery system works.

The key word is “curbside.” Unlike popular food delivery companies like DoorDash and UberEats, Faction’s robotic vehicles don’t involve a human driver bringing food to your door, in hopes of getting a tip.

When a Faction vehicle delivers your food, you will receive a text message that the vehicle has arrived and you will head to the curb to collect your food from the car parked in front of your house. Please put on some clothes. The neighbors might see you.

When you order from Kirby/Southwest Chick-fil-A on the Chick-fil-A app and click delivery, you’ll have a choice of how you want your food delivered to your home. You can always request DoorDash or another service. If you choose “curbside delivery,” wait for a Faction vehicle to pull up to your house. You’ll open the storage door, pop open the separate boxes that keep your sandwiches and fries warm and your soda cold, and head home to your treat.

Currently, the Kirby/Southwest Freeway Chick-fil-A restaurant uses two Faction vehicles to supplement regular delivery cars during peak hours. Faction promises (they phrase this claim as “estimates”) that you’ll get your food within 30 minutes. Currently, human “supervisors” accompany the vehicles as they map out the restaurant’s four-mile delivery zone. Faction tracks the progress of its vehicles on a video board at the base to ensure each delivery goes smoothly.

The electric vehicles are licensed and insured and can go 75 mph on freeways. But because of Houston’s notoriously heavy traffic, Faction has programmed the vehicles to stay on surface streets and below the speed limit. That’s how I get around, too. I got tired of that inexplicable gridlock on the Southwest Freeway as it turns into downtown.

McKendrick said the driverless vehicles will have learned Houston’s streets well enough by August to operate without human supervisors.

Will customers accept having their Chick-fil-A food delivered to them by self-driving vehicles? So far, that’s not an issue. In fact, McKendrick said some customers are waiting outside with their phone cameras ready to share photos of the delivery. Sharing their waffle fries is another story.

I’m skeptical about electric and autonomous vehicles. I asked McKendrick…

What happens if a dog runs in front of a Faction vehicle? He said the vehicle will automatically stop to let the dog pass.

What if there was a children’s birthday party in my neighborhood and there was no parking in front of my house? He said the vehicle would pull over and flash the warning lights until the customer came to pick up their food.

So what’s the benefit to Chick-fil-A of partnering with Faction? Jesse Chaluh, owner of Chick-fil-A in Kirby/Southwest Freeway, said it’s a more efficient way to offer delivery service to his customers. He thinks his restaurant will eventually need five or more Faction vehicles to keep up with demand.

While each vehicle currently delivers one order to one customer per trip, the technology will eventually improve and each vehicle will be able to make multiple deliveries on each foray into Houston’s streets.