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Robot Serves Up 360 Hamburgers Per Hour

Posted by Soulskill on from the om-nom-nom dept.

kkleiner writes "No longer will they say, 'He's going to end up flipping burgers.' Now, robots are taking even these ignobly esteemed jobs. San Francisco based Momentum Machines makes a robot called the Alpha that can churn out 360 gourmet burgers per hour. The company plans on launching the first ever burger restaurant chain with a cook staff made entirely of robots. You think Americans are obese right now? Just wait."

23 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Mmm-mm! by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 4, Funny

    That is a tasty burger.

    1. Re:Mmm-mm! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      "That is a tasty burger."

      Is it?

      I wonder how well it does with "hold the salt" or "lighten up on the mayo."

      At least it won't spit on your burger

    2. Re: Mmm-mm! by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hamburger corporations are people too.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:Mmm-mm! by jonnythan · · Score: 3, Funny

      SAY WHAT AGAIN.

    4. Re:Mmm-mm! by Jade_Wayfarer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, there are two established points of view on this problem - idealistic and cynical. Idealistic view says that after a while it would cost almost nothing to produce food, clothes, even housing for every living person, so it would became a part of the guaranteed social minimum. Luxuries (informational also, like newest music, books and other art) would cost real money, which would be available to small, but active part of humanity, but most of the people would be pretty happy with what they can get for free.

      Cynical view says that only a tiny fraction of all people would still be entitled to more and more luxurious style of living (maybe even smaller than 1% of population), and their status would be reinforced through ever rising army of robotic workers, policemen and even soldiers. Maybe they'll keep a small batch of second-class citizens - high-level engineers, scientists, entertainers, servants and so on. Everyone else - well, tough luck, there's no more free resources in this world, and you don't have any money to pay for anything, including basics like food and living space. Death camps or even processing plants are going to solve this little problem quite effectively.

      I think in the short run we'll have something in between - world elites are still like to show that they care for the "common folk", but in the long run - who knows? What's interesting is that dystopian future has more promise for us as a species - it's easier to move to the new frontiers when you just can't stand home any longer, than when your life is an endless holiday. So in order to eventually colonize other worlds we may have to rely more on people's greed, stupidity and other "bad traits", than on people's rationality and goodwill. Anyway, only time will tell how it will all work out in the end.

      --
      Absence of proof != proof of absence.
  2. Couch Potato by Jetra · · Score: 3, Interesting

    With no more entry level positions, maybe we can finally take over the world by using our free time to build death rays.

  3. That's nothing by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Informative

    I saw SpongeBob SquarePants serve up thousands of Crabby Patties in just a few minutes!

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  4. Fatter? by PlusFiveTroll · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why would this make us more obese, this won't make more fat food then we already have, just a new way of doing it. It will just put a few low paid cooks out of a job and leaves one job for some guy that fixes the machine.

    1. Re:Fatter? by FunkSoulBrother · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why would this make us more obese, this won't make more fat food then we already have, just a new way of doing it. It will just put a few low paid cooks out of a job and leaves one job for some guy that fixes the machine.

      Oh sure it will, there is almost certainly some percentage of fatties that are partially kept in check by the shame of ordering multiple day's worth of food from a skinny teenager. Once you're ordering from an nonjudging robot it will be much socially easier to ask for 3 burgers and 2 orders of fries.

      It will be like the guys that would never set foot in a physical porn shop, but have no problem purchasing it online.

  5. The Luddite Fallacy by mfwitten · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Read about it and understand it.

    1. Re:The Luddite Fallacy by tragedy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The thing about that though is the question of what economic activity arises for people to participate in for employment. We're already living in an age where most of the useful labour is done by a relatively small percentage of the population. Most of the rest works in various types of service job. Robots like this can replace human workers in entire large segments of those service industries. Sure there are other service jobs, but there are a lot of them that really are of the replaceable with a simple shell script variety. With a little more machine intelligence, the majority of them probably are replaceable that way. Eventually, there won't be any low or no-skill jobs left. Even the jobs fixing the machines will be done by machines. The simple fact is that most people aren't high-skilled labour and even those who are highly skilled or are very, very good at their jobs often can't compete with a custom designed machine (shades of John Henry). The truth is that the new economy jobs that gradually replace the old ones are worse and worse and the typical labourer is going to have to sell their labour on what is increasingly a buyers market.

      The problem is that farming, mining, manufacturing, food service, retail sales, warehouse jobs, delivery, construction, etc. can all conceivably be replaced almost entirely by machines. The owners of the machines, farms, mines, factories, restaurants, stores, warehouses, delivery companies, construction companies, etc. will then be the only people producing the tangible things that the consumers truly need, while the majority of the consumers will be working in service jobs producing intangibles that people don't really need.

      In other words, we are in danger of transitioning to post-scarcity technology without transitioning to a post-scarcity economy. That leaves most people, at best, working themselves to death in completely unproductive, pointless jobs.

    2. Re:The Luddite Fallacy by Eskarel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem which reality is showing us(though no good economist, especially right wing economists ever let pesky things like reality get in the way) is that the automatic relocation of even new workers doesn't work the way that economic theory says it should. People who work in what would be traditionally called Blue Collar roles are not always in those roles because of any lack of education or opportunity. In many cases people who do manual jobs do so because they enjoy them and/or have an affinity for them which they would not have if they were doing some sort of indoor office role, plenty of people seem to feel the same way about the non assembly line areas of food service.

      In short, labor is not fungible. Not only is someone who has trained as a machinist for twenty years going to magically transform into someone working in HR overnight, but it appears that a person who if a machinist job was available would have taken that job for twenty years won't successfully become an HR drone simply because that is the job that is available. Everyone has different skills and different personalities, and just because you or I are comfortable working in an office in front of a computer doesn't mean that everyone is, and that's not even taking into account whether someone who would be comfortable doing that kind of job is able to access the education and training necessary to excel in it.

      We on Slashdot tend to have a somewhat biased view of the world, we are, for the most part, information workers in a world where information work is expanding and our opportunities are a darned site rosier than many, but imagine for a moment if you were forced to do construction or work in a restaurant(or if you do those things imagine being an IT worker). It's not just about skills it's about what people are good at and can live with doing.

    3. Re:The Luddite Fallacy by Eskarel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The theory is the usual "Free Market Fallacy" wherein the cost of entry to every industry is effectively zero so if you don't drop your price to $15 someone will enter the market who will. The issue of course is that the cost of entry into most industries is far from zero and so the $15 guy never enters the market and the price remains at $20. Potentially existing competitors could drive the price down, but race to the bottom doesn't really work for existing players unless they believe they can pick up and maintain a substantial enough increase in market share to make up for the loss in profits over time.

  6. Look at the pictures by Bobfrankly1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nothing says appetizing like a burger popping out flanked by greased chains...

    1. Re:Look at the pictures by esldude · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Is that worse than wondering where your food preparers hands have been since they were last washed? And though adjacent to the burger, they didn't come into contact with it. Plus there are food grade greases used in such devices that are safe around food preparation like this.

  7. A robot making hamburgers with an xbox? by mark-t · · Score: 4, Funny

    That can't be right.... Did I misread the headline?

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    1. Re:A robot making hamburgers with an xbox? by mat8913 · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's quite possible considering the temperatures the xbox can get up to.

    2. Re:A robot making hamburgers with an xbox? by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 4, Funny

      Step1: Eject Disk
      Step2: Insert Beef Patty
      Step3: Wait for red ring of perfection.

      --
      God spoke to me
  8. It's truly the end by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 4, Insightful

    .. of employment in America.

  9. Where this is going... by Chemisor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Time to reread Manna. The cooks, the manager, the cleaning staff, and finally you, until nobody has any work or any money.

  10. Done before, several times by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Automatic burger machines date back to the 1950s. Back then, everybody ate the same thing, so assembly-like type systems were useful. American Machine and Foundry built an automated fast-food outlet in the 1960s, but it wasn't cost-effective. McDonalds tried this out back in 2003.

    It's not that it's technically difficult. It's that the volume required to make it profitable is higher than most fast food outlets can sell.

  11. FINALLY!!! by sackofdonuts · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Although the food at most fast food restaurants isn't that great sometimes one gets the urge to get a greasy burger. But then you go and see who is working the grill or fryer and your appetite goes away. Robot food service....Yes!!!

  12. Burgers are never flipped at McD or BK by kriston · · Score: 5, Informative

    Burgers are never flipped at McDonalds or Burger King. McDonalds uses a dual-surface grill, contacting the beef from top and bottom. Burger King uses a broiler with flames on the top and bottom.

    No flipping burgers. Note this for future reference.

    --

    Kriston