Burger Robot Startup Opens First Restaurant (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Creator's transparent burger robot doesn't grind your brisket and chuck steak into a gourmet patty until you order it. That's just one way this startup, formerly known as Momentum Machines, wants to serve the world's freshest cheeseburger for just $6. On June 27th, after eight years in development, Creator unveils its first robot restaurant before opening to the public in September. Here's how Creator's burger-cooking bot works at its 680 Folsom Street location in San Francisco. Once you order your burger style through a human concierge on a tablet, a compressed air tube pushes a baked-that-day bun into an elevator on the right. It's sawed in half by a vibrating knife before being toasted and buttered as it's lowered to conveyor belt. Sauces measured by the milliliter and spices by the gram are automatically squirted onto the bun. Whole pickles, tomatoes, onions and blocks of nice cheese get slices shaved off just a second before they're dropped on top.

Meanwhile, the robot grinds hormone-free, pasture-raised brisket and chuck steak to order. But rather than mash them all up, the strands of meat hang vertically and are lightly pressed together. They form a loose but auto-griddleable patty that's then plopped onto the bun before the whole package slides out of the machine after a total time of about five minutes. The idea is that when you bite into the burger, your teeth align with the vertical strands so instead of requiring harsh chewing it almost melts in your mouth. TechCrunch has produced a video about the company on YouTube.

Comments

Can I please have a robot ...

[CaptainDork]

... eat it for me?

I'm wearing my power tie.

Re: Can I please have a robot ...

[CaptainDork]

thats who I want mak

Re:Can I please have a robot ...

[Agripa]

... eat it for me?

How about a robot which exercises the calories off while you watch?

Re:Can I please have a robot ...

[CaptainDork]

Only if it's a robot hand like Wolowitz had.

Chewy?

[JaredOfEuropa]

If your burger requires "harsh chewing", you seriously need to start frequenting a different burger joint.

Re:Chewy?

[zlives]

introducing Burger paste Robot.
My robot takes the previous burger and puts it through a food processor so all you need is a straw, just in-case you experience harsh melting of the previous burger.
next up regurgitated food paste robot to optimize soylant green consumption.

Re:Chewy?

[arth1]

Yeah, truly. All other places use ground beef, which is basically pre-chewed.

And what makes it a hamburger.
This is as much a hamburger as a salisbury "steak" is a steak.

Re:Chewy?

[rtb61]

Most people do not realise the burger robot is actually an exercise in economic futility. You go to a fast food joint to eat what you do not have to cook and in many instance are probably incapable of cooking. Of course if a robot cooks it, why bother paying for the food when you can buy the robot and it cooks for you. So robot cooks, why pay someone else a profit margin, when you can have what you want, when you want it, in your own home, from fresh raw ingredients, cooked carefully and no food shenanigans.

Then there is the next choice, do you want a robot effigy of a human slave in the kitchen or do you want a robot kitchen. Why enter you kitchen ever, instead have an autochef. A cubicle with two pairs of inbuilt robotic arms (so they can fix each other), a fridge freezer and pantry with backdoors so that you can fill them and a serving portal where you pick up your freshly prepared foods, or have a simple deliver bot brings it to you. The autochef, it's two pairs of robotic arms, can touch and hence clean and even repair every part of the auto chef (the hotplates, oven, microwave, cutlery and utensil storage and all work surfaces, sinks, garbage disposal) and select from you fridge, freezer and pantry all the raw ingredients needed to make pretty much any meal. A fresh hamburger, on a fresh bun, done to perfection, your idea of perfection, or a fresh ramekin of lasagne or a fresh ground cup of coffee, you need never enter you kitchen again. Mostly spotless and fresh food always available, after the required preparation time, as long as you stock it with raw ingredients, hell autochef could order those for you and toss out old stuff, even store quality left overs for a quick snack.

So robotic kitchen, why pay someone else a massive profit to use theirs, why go to the supermarket for anything other than raw ingredients, your autochef can make everything from scratch. Everyone who can afford it will buy the autochef and takeaway food and processed food will all be in deep, deep shit. Hell fancy scientific autochef, can store and process waste to create methane to feed a microturbine to generate heat and electricity.

So takeaway food companies developing autochefs so they don't have to pay shitty worthless human beings to do the work, ultimately put themselves out of work, why fucking pay them, they think people are shit and not worth employing, well, the junk food company executives are shit and not worth employing (that is probably a lot more accurate than it should be), I want that autochef like yesterday. So question for someone like Elon Musk is which is more profitable over the long term, being first at the autochef cubicle that is installed in homes or competing with electric vehicles, that autochef, pretty much well sell for the same price as a car, be very similar in build complexity and likely quite profitable, including install costs. Size driven mainly by how many meals it can prepare at the same time. it could be relatively compact. I would pay more for an autochef than for a car, seriously.

Re:Chewy?

[hipp5]

So robot cooks, why pay someone else a profit margin, when you can have what you want, when you want it, in your own home, from fresh raw ingredients, cooked carefully and no food shenanigans.

Because I don't want to drop $50k on a robot just so I can have burgers made for me? Also, not wanting or being able to cook burgers is not the main reason I go to a fast food joint; I go because I'm at work or on the road or whatever and don't have a kitchen with me.

Re:Chewy?

[omnichad]

All ground beef comes out of the grinder through the grinder holes in "strands" of ground beef. Since the grain of the meat is already ground, it doesn't really matter if you keep this alignment the same or not. This would be an extremely minor difference since the strands are somewhat compressed together compared to the patty as a whole.

Re:Chewy?

[apoc.famine]

Did you see the size of this thing? To make one burger at a time? It's a factory assembly line, not a robot chef.

Yes, there is now a "robot" which can make a burger. But it's nothing near a robotic kitchen. You're going to need decent AI to program an all-purpose robot chef. And we're far, far from that. FFS, current robot technology has issues simply holding things. I'd be surprised if there is a robot on the market right now that can pick up things as varied as peas, eggs, sticks of butter, liquids, flour, and whole chickens. And if there is one, my guess is that it would be cheaper just to hire a human chef than to buy one, without even considering the kitchen engineering it would need nor the AI.

While we will probably eventually get there, we're decades away from it right now. Self-driving is a far easier task for a robot than cooking, and we're several years from being able to do that yet.

Re:Chewy?

[Agripa]

If your burger requires "harsh chewing", you seriously need to start frequenting a different burger joint.

Since learning how to use a cast iron frying pan, I find myself disappointed in any burger that I did not make myself.

Re:That long?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> an automated burger machine

In a couple of years it can be cross-sold into the hospice and funeral services industries to provide more ecological-friendly "burials". That's probably the real business plan.

Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[jelwell]

They're charging double what In N Out charges, which doesn't freeze any of their ingredients. I guess teenagers are cheaper than robots...
Joseph Elwell.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[Rick Schumann]

Marketing people say:

Hey, all we have to do is say it's a 'robot' and mention 'AI' and the public will think it's an android like from I, Robot and they'll come in droves and throw money at us!

That's how this happens. You're smart enough to not fall for it, which is why you're confused. Also In-N-Out is better anyway, guaranteed. So is staying home and making your own.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[sexconker]

In N' Out pays very well. They start at $13 an hour in my area. They train and promote from within, have good benefits, etc.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[kenai_alpenglow]

Cheaper right now. But wait until min wage goes to $15 (and then higher--this is just the latest figure)...throw in learning curve/etc (how many McDonalds are there anyway?) and it will end up quite a bit cheaper than that teenager.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[roc97007]

Teenagers *are* cheaper than robots. At least for now.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[roc97007]

Cheaper for now...once any issues with the robot are worked out and enough are starting to be manufactured for economies of scale to kick in I'm guessing that won't be the case. Also, don't assume savings will be passed onto the customer...maybe it is a lot cheaper than teenagers, but the owner thinks the market will support the price so he can pocket the difference.

The one advantage I see for now is that the cost of running the machine (once capital expenditure is made) is unlikely to rise as quickly as minimum wage. Especially in San Francisco.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[desdinova 216]

the closest In-N-Out to me is half of a continent away, can I go to five guys instead?

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[brad3378]

To be fair, his restaurant is located in one of the most expensive cities on the planet.

He also doesn't have the advantage of economies of scale like a big chain restaurant.

And to be fair, his restaurant offers many more customization choices than In-and-Out. $6 for a burger is reasonable.

All that being said, I wouldn't go out of my way to eat there.

Re: Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[WindBourne]

They use top ingredients such as hormone-free, pasture fed beef with decent cuts( brisket/Chuck ). In/out probably has feed-lot full of hormones/antibiotics with pure Chuck. In addition, they are paying 16/he, while your help was likely paid minimum along with food stamps, WIC, etc. I hope this place makes it to Colorado.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[youngone]

The one advantage I see for now is that the cost of running the machine (once capital expenditure is made) is unlikely to rise as quickly as minimum wage. Especially in San Francisco.

Advantage for who? The people not getting a job because the robot is working?
Your comment seems to imply that a higher minimum wage is a bad thing.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[roc97007]

The one advantage I see for now is that the cost of running the machine (once capital expenditure is made) is unlikely to rise as quickly as minimum wage. Especially in San Francisco.

Advantage for who? The people not getting a job because the robot is working?

Your comment seems to imply that a higher minimum wage is a bad thing.

Advantage to the owner of the business, of course. Added bonus, (again, to the owner) this is a capital-heavy investment, (cost of the machine) that's DL-lite. (Cost of workers.) And capital expenditures are tax deductible. Even in California.

I don't have an opinion for or against a higher minimum wage. I observe that a higher minimum wage appears to be one of the driving factors for automation designed to eliminate minimum wage jobs. For which, "fast food burger flipper" has long been considered the epitome.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[ShanghaiBill]

In N' Out pays very well. They start at $13 an hour in my area. They train and promote from within, have good benefits, etc.

They also hire very few teenagers. They provide long term "careers" for adult burger flippers. I am not sure this is a good thing. It is harder to climb the economic ladder when the bottom rung is missing.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[ShanghaiBill]

I wouldn't go out of my way to eat there.

I would, at least once, just to see it in operation. I even live in the Bay Area. Unfortunately, I am a veggie.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[zlives]

no, not even close.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[Darinbob]

Most minimum wage good jobs these days don't seem to have as many teenagers as much as in the past. Most teens don't want those jobs, they prefer working at the GAP where they are allowed to check their social media all day while ignoring customers. There are plenty of adults who need those minimum wage jobs.

Re: Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[_Sharp'r_]

You obviously don't know anything about In-N-Out Burger, not their food ingredients nor their pay scale. You might consider not commenting on things you're completely clueless about.

Re: Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[Trax3001BBS]

You obviously don't know anything about In-N-Out Burger, not their food ingredients nor their pay scale. You might consider not commenting on things you're completely clueless about.

Looks like limited distribution, this was posted recently to Reddit.com
In-N-Out and Shake Shack locations mapped (Yellow)
https://www.reddit.com/r/datai...

Not one even close to me.

Re: Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[CaffeinatedBacon]

But then he won't be able to comment about anything...

Re: Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[_Sharp'r_]

+1, Fair point...

Re: Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[djinn6]

As much as I like In-N-Out, the page doesn't say organic or grass fed beef, which in corporate speak means feedlot cattle with antibiotics & hormones.

The roboburger also looks a bit bigger. If they got the taste anywhere near as good as In-N-Out, it'll be well worth the extra $2.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[AmiMoJo]

Have you tried those fake-meat "impossible" burgers? They are expensive but they are remarkably good.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[mjwx]

They're charging double what In N Out charges, which doesn't freeze any of their ingredients. I guess teenagers are cheaper than robots...

Initial costs are bound to be high... Also In-N-Out are pretty cheap as far as burger joints go, especially for how good they are.

Re: Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[tehcyder]

You obviously don't know anything about In-N-Out Burger, not their food ingredients nor their pay scale. You might consider not commenting on things you're completely clueless about.

I'm not American and have never heard of In-N-Out but I can tell one thing: they've got a good social media marketing team.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[apoc.famine]

And ironically, a lot of the customer base for the fast food industry are minimum wage folks, who won't have money to spend there anymore if automation takes their jobs. When your employees are your customers, you really need to think twice before getting rid of them.

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[roc97007]

And ironically, a lot of the customer base for the fast food industry are minimum wage folks, who won't have money to spend there anymore if automation takes their jobs. When your employees are your customers, you really need to think twice before getting rid of them.

If so, things should work out on their own. The fast food industry will transition to an all-mechanized low-labor business model, and then quietly go out of business.

But I'm not sure how "your employees are your customers" is supposed to work, as a practical matter. That ultimately sounds like you're selling your product to yourself at a markup, losing money on every transaction. And then what, make it up in volume?

Re:Cost twice as much as In-N-Out

[ayesnymous]

Probably tastes better than In-N-Out though.

A Real Porker

[resistant]

When can we expect an episode of Black Mirror that features this machine dispensing absolutely scrumptious burgers made with some unusual meats? Or has that been done already? Either way, I fully expect life to imitate art in the near future ....

Re:A Real Porker

[zlives]

i think it was a 3d printed burger using solyent green.

Re:A Real Porker

[the_archer666]

There's an X Files episode made like a black mirror episode which features a robot restaurant: https://www.geek.com/televisio...

A few thoughts after watching video

[SuperKendall]

The video is actually kind of interesting, two points from that:

It doesn't take away as many jobs as you might think, they still have a staff (someone has to keep people from smashing the machine, or clean out its greasy innards at night). They even give workers 5% of time to do something for self-improvement, like reading a book. The owner said after cooking tens of thousands of burgers he invented the machine so the workers would have less tedious and more creative things to do.

The other thought - for a fully automated system "precise" delivery of condiments is rougher than you would think. Even in the video where they could do a few runs, the robot has got some sauce on the box so that kind of shorted your exact measurements I would think (and was a bit messy).

It looked like a decent burger, would love to try.

Re:A few thoughts after watching video

[Powercntrl]

It doesn't take away as many jobs as you might think, they still have a staff (someone has to keep people from smashing the machine, or clean out its greasy innards at night).

Until someone else comes along and decides they can make MOAR PROFIT!!1 by opening their own robo-burger joint, with a self-cleaning robot, taser drones for security, and automated ordering kiosks.

The Lorax nailed it ages ago: "If I didn't do it, then someone else would."

Re:A few thoughts after watching video

[sydbarrett74]

I agree with your cautious optimism. In a 40-hour work-week, 5% equates to two hours, which is more generous than it sounds. They could spend that time taking an online class via MOOC, studying for a certification, or whatever. The staff are all paid $16/hr, which is decent. If this guy can sustain the model, I say more power to him. Interesting to see if his model gets tweaked and replicated.

Re:A few thoughts after watching video

[TheDarkMaster]

I've been thinking the same thing while watching the video. The final result is somewhat messy and the mechanism does not make a "closed" sandwich (ending with the top half of the bread on top, it is necessary for the customer to close the sandwich). The idea itself looks good but I would make several changes in the mechanism, especially in the part of the speed of the preparation, precision and ease of maintenance (it is obvious to me that the parts that cut the ingredients will need constant cleaning)

Re:A few thoughts after watching video

[Kjella]

It looked good enough when it works but I really wonder what the prep/clean/maintenance work will be. And how much downtime you'll have because when the machine isn't working it doesn't look like humans can fill in easily. But hey, it's cool that they're finally moving out of prototyping and actually opening up a restaurant. Though I have a feeling that if it's a success you'll see McD and BK rolling out their own system soon, it looks a bit easy to copy and I doubt there's much you can patent there.

Re:A few thoughts after watching video

[alvinrod]

I don't really get the 5% time. Just pay them more and have them work two fewer hours. They make the same amount of money and can use their time for whatever they want. I'm less optimistic and more realistic. Most people's 5% time will be spend screwing around on mobile games, checking Facebook, etc. 5% time just sounds like some kind of feel good bullshit or "breaks" thrown on the euphemism treadmill.

And here's what's going to happen with this model: someone else will build a similar robot, find a way to avoid having most or all of the staff, and charge $3 a burger because they have much lower costs and this restaurant will either have to cut costs or die off. People will always try to get the best value for their money and someone else being able to have a job usually doesn't provide the same amount of value as an extra $3 in their pocket. If you think I'm wrong, go into the average flag-waving 'Murican patriot's home and 90% of their stuff is going to be from China or somewhere close to it.

Re:A few thoughts after watching video

[djinn6]

The reason something like 20% time works is that it's actually work time, which means no screwing around or playing video games. If you get a bunch of smart people to do nothing for a while, they'll start coming up with interesting ideas. Out of those, a few end up being profitable for the company.

Whether the same applies to food service employees waits to be seen. I'm sure some are just coasting along, while others are trying to better themselves. If the owner can afford it, I don't see why he shouldn't give the latter group a chance.

they missed a buzzword, I'll beat 'em to market!

[Thud457]

Satoshi's Blockchain Burger

They WHAT?!

[DontBeAMoran]

Once you order your burger style through a human concierge on a tablet, a compressed air tube pushes a baked-that-day bun into an elevator on the right. It's sawed in half by a vibrating knife before being toasted and buttered as it's lowered to conveyor belt.

I'm lactose intolerant, you insensitive clod!

Re:They WHAT?!

[DontBeAMoran]

Try Earth Balance.

Re:They WHAT?!

[mjwx]

Once you order your burger style through a human concierge on a tablet, a compressed air tube pushes a baked-that-day bun into an elevator on the right. It's sawed in half by a vibrating knife before being toasted and buttered as it's lowered to conveyor belt.

I'm lactose intolerant, you insensitive clod!

I'm not lactose intolerant... but toasted and then buttered? I have a decent palate, you tasteless clods.

Lee Iacocca

[JBMcB]

"In the Ford Motor Company's executive dining room, Henry Ford II rarely ate anything but hamburgers. According to Lee Iacocca, Ford complained that his own personal chef at home couldn't make a decent burger. In fact, no one made burgers as perfect as the ones at the executive dining room. Curious, Iacocca asked the establishment's chef to show him what he did to make Ford so happy with his burgers. The chef went to the fridge, grabbed an inch-thick slab of New York strip steak, ran it through a grinder, patted up a patty and tossed it on the grill. "Amazing what you can cook up when you start with a five-dollar hunk of meat," said the chef with a sly smile. (Though it would be more like a $25 hunk of meat today.)"

Re:Lee Iacocca

[tehcyder]

"In the Ford Motor Company's executive dining room, Henry Ford II rarely ate anything but hamburgers. According to Lee Iacocca, Ford complained that his own personal chef at home couldn't make a decent burger. In fact, no one made burgers as perfect as the ones at the executive dining room. Curious, Iacocca asked the establishment's chef to show him what he did to make Ford so happy with his burgers. The chef went to the fridge, grabbed an inch-thick slab of New York strip steak, ran it through a grinder, patted up a patty and tossed it on the grill. "Amazing what you can cook up when you start with a five-dollar hunk of meat," said the chef with a sly smile. (Though it would be more like a $25 hunk of meat today.)"

That story just shows that Henry Ford II had a fucking useless personal chef at home.

When you see a gourmet burger recipe from Gordon Ramsay or someone, they don't start out with GBP 2/kilo mince from Asda.

Re:Lee Iacocca

[apoc.famine]

Well, sure, but that doesn't mean you can't make cheap chuck taste fantastic either. I tend to go with the cheap stuff rather than waste a good steak, and still consistently make better burgers than I can find most places around where I live.

My personal favorite is to do a fine dice on mushrooms and jalepenos and add them, a bit of roasted cumin, and salt and pepper into the meat. When you cook the patty, the mushrooms and jalepenos steam into the meat, adding a ton of moisture. The taste/texture doesn't really change much, the mushrooms enhance the umami from the meat, and the extra bit of smoky/earthiness from the cumin pushes it over the top.

I consistently get "that's one of the best burgers I've ever had" from people who try them, and that's without using expensive cuts of meat. I could probably make even better burgers if I did, but why bother? I'd rather eat those cuts as steaks.

Uh

[sexconker]

Sauces measured by the milliliter and spices by the gram

How about tenth of a millimeter for sauces and milligrams for spices?
Having an excess milliliter of mayo or mustard can really ruin the balance of a burger, and of course make a mess of things.
Having an extra GRAM of spices can cause someone to cough and choke or have allergic reactions (that they normally wouldn't).

Re: Uh

[TJHook3r]

Yeah, spices by the gram ain't too precise! Hopefully no hot chilli in there.

Re: Uh

[ItsJustAPseudonym]

Or LSD.

Re:Uh

[mentil]

This is San Fran. They can get it down to the Mol.

Re: Uh

[tehcyder]

Or LSD.

You obviously go to more interesting burger joints than I do.

Re:So what, who cares?

[ciurana]

There's a Tex-Mex restaurant chain that for years and years has had a tortilla-making 'robot' the sits in their lobby and makes fresh tortillas all day long.

I remember getting MCSE training at an outfit called Ameritrain some years ago that had a 'robot' in their lobby that would fresh-grind coffee and brew it for you while you waited.

Where work right now there's a couple different designs of coffee-grinding-and-brewing 'robots', too.

There is nothing impressive or 'innovative' about this, it's jus another machine that performs one pre-programmed function: making your a gods-be-damned hamburger. The definition of 'robot' is getting about as blurred and obfuscated by assholes in marketing as they've been doing with what is and is not 'AI'.

Nothing to see here.. ..and I wouldn't even eat that shitty hamburger if you gave it to me for free.

Heh. Spoken with all the authority of someone who hasn't seen the robot in action or sampled the burgers. I need to re-read my NDA to see if I can talk about it now. I've tried the burger, the restaurant, etc. and there's plenty of innovation and cool factor around this. Most important: the quality is way above fast food burgers at a similar price point.

Time will tell. I, for one, welcome our hamburger making overlords.

Cheers!

Jason's Roboburger III: The next generation

[smoothnorman]

"Meanwhile, the robot grinds hormone-free, pasture-raised brisket and chuck steak to order. But rather than mash them all up, the strands of meat hang vertically and are lightly pressed together...."

So you're saying that it's a boring obvious excuse for a gory murder mystery?

Flippy

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

That's not so much a robot as an assembly line.

Re:they missed a buzzword, I'll beat 'em to market

[DontBeAMoran]

And just to double-confuse people, they only accept Litecoins.

Spices by the GRAM?

[roc97007]

Wow, my kind of place.

Re: That long?

[roc97007]

Which lizard *did* get elected? They all look alike...

where to put the first one

[roc97007]

I vote for Musée Mécanique in San Francisco.

Re:So what, who cares?

[Rick Schumann]

You forgot to close your comment properly: needs "" at the end, otherwise everything posted after you will be read in a disingenuously smarmy tone.

Re:This sounds great

[roc97007]

I suspect they're spitting on your hamburger because you're calling them illiterate border crossers.

Re: That long?

[desdinova 216]

some say the wrong one, others say the right one. Both are true, from a certain point of view

Now, fries, drinks, shakes, etc

[WindBourne]

Should all be automated. I'm amazed that drinks still have not been automated. So much wasted labor on that. Even fries can be easily automated.

Re:Now, fries, drinks, shakes, etc

[TimMD909]

Should all be automated. I'm amazed that drinks still have not been automated. So much wasted labor on that. Even fries can be easily automated.

Regarding the drinks being automated, that's already starting to happen. There are plenty of places where you buy the cup, then go to a self service kiosk with myriad drink options available. It's better than automation because they're making the customer do the work. Subway understood that. Long ago, they decided that free refills weren't something worth worrying about with all the savings their approach had. The new modern fancier drink machines are pretty snazzy too...

I'm actually surprised that fries haven't been fully automated. At the very least, I'm surprised there's not a way to automatically take them out of the oil when done. Even a simple egg timer attached to a motor would do.

However, I'd rather fast food make ordering kiosks their priority. It would eliminate a major source of error and confusion.

Re:Now, fries, drinks, shakes, etc

[Actually, I do RTFA]

I'm amazed that drinks still have not been automated.

Most fast food places have automated drinks. Except for the drive thru, where they use a human to move the cup around. Cause it's the same human who's handling the money.

Re:Now, fries, drinks, shakes, etc

[apoc.famine]

However, I'd rather fast food make ordering kiosks their priority. It would eliminate a major source of error and confusion.

Especially if you could visually display the order! It shouldn't be too hard to have an image for all the stuff you'd put on a burger, and show what the person is configuring. Dominos already does this with their pizzas.

The cost of implementing that would vastly reduce overhead, both in terms of staff taking orders and resolving errors. You could even do a "no refunds or exchanges" with that, because the customer knew exactly what they were getting and pressed OK. (Assuming they got what they ordered.)

The lack of automation of fries I am also really surprised at as well. One chain near me advertises that their fries are "hand cut" like that's some badge of honor. They just have a fry press. The staff grab a washed potato, throw it into the bin, and pull the lever. The potato gets cut by the blades and falls into a bowl. There is no reason that a pressure sensor and a small electric motor couldn't do exactly the same thing.

Re:The Melt, revisited

[desdinova 216]

maybe it will shoot a man in Reno, just to watch them die and be sentenced to the prison there.

Ewww...

[TheSouthernDandy]

They form a loose but auto-griddleable patty that's then plopped onto the bun before the whole package slides out of the machine

I look forward to sinking my teeth into a burger that could have been cooked, but is apparently not by default.

"Harsh chewing"?

[cascadingstylesheet]

I have never contemplated the harshness of the chewing involved for a burger ... big ol slab of pork, yes, burger, no ...

Strands

[sheramil]

> But rather than mash them all up, the strands of meat hang vertically and are lightly pressed together.

> They form a loose but auto-griddleable patty that's then plopped onto the bun before the whole

> package slides out of the machine after a total time of about five minutes. The idea is that when

> you bite into the burger, your teeth align with the vertical strands so instead of requiring

> harsh chewing it almost melts in your mouth.

So if I rotate the burger by 90 degrees, I'll be eating against the grain and it'll require even MORE harsh chewing? Not a problem if they can also toast an arrow into the bun to show you which way up it goes.

Re:Strands

[mentil]

Unfortunately it's an open-face burger, the customer has to put the top bun on themselves. I agree it should say "face this end toward face" on the bun.

Re:Strands

[omnichad]

Don't eat the burger vertically and you'll be fine. It's pretty easy to find and eat from the narrow edge.

No tip I spit oil in your burger!

[Joe_Dragon]

No tip I spit oil in your burger!

Self improvement time?

[TJHook3r]

Apparently human workers get 5% of their time for 'self improvement' and it made me realise that I spend about the same amount of time writing crap on forums :(

chewing

[Darinbob]

I can't think of any burger I've had in a few decades that has required "harsh chewing".

Re: chewing

[TJHook3r]

For 300lb burger fans eating 3 or 4 at a time, any chewing is unwanted!

Re:chewing

[mentil]

It's not tough meat, it just clashes with your mojo. Totally harsh, bruh.

Re:So what, who cares?

[zlives]

the coffee robot in Metreon makes surprisingly good cappuccino. however i have had better coffee but not that consistently.

Bad pickle

[networkzombie]

What is the quality control abilities of these automated food preparers? If a cockroach crawls onto the burger does the robot flick it off? Can it recognize foreign matter on the burger like plastic bits or a sheet metal screw? Creating burgers, like much food prep, is part art (chef) and part repetitive motion (teenager). Sure, I have to go to Chick filet to get my pickles evenly distributed, unlike the other burger joints where they stack them in the middle, but at least humans are looking at the pickles to make sure they are the right color, or even pickles! No thanks, I'll go to a real burger joint, or in-n-out, where I eat once a month (no regrets). If you complain about the tiny patties, get a 3x3. They're quite good. As previously posted, humans are underrated. You can program a human to make a burger in a couple minutes. Most of them have already been programmed to recognize a bad pickle.

Re:Bad pickle

[mentil]

Giving cockroaches the finger doesn't improve the sanitation of your food. That said, if one threatens to jump onto your sandwich, the computer vision system will see it 6 seconds beforehand but do nothing and alert noone due to too many false positives.

8 years my ass

[ghinckley68]

8 hours sure
8 days yea doable
8 weeks months year no way

Re: That long?

[UncleTogie]

Don't blame me, I voted for Zaphod...

Re:they missed a buzzword, I'll beat 'em to market

[mentil]

Some hoodlums the next table over did a 51% attack on my burger.

What's in a name.

[BadTuna]

The best name for a restaurant they could come up with is 'Creator'?

Bot's Burgers was the obvious choice.

[sabbede]

They missed a great opportunity. Successful businesses can't do that too frequently.

Re:they missed a buzzword, I'll beat 'em to market

[omnichad]

That's one way to use up all that mining heat.

Re:So what, who cares?

[Rick Schumann]

Wow, there sure are a bunch of butthurt 'robot' fanbois who like shitty machine-made hamburgers, who have mod points. I guess you fanbois would like your cheeseburgers in a can, too, so you don't have to go outside and talk to other human beings, either. Just order a case of them at a time, and wait until the FedEx driver walks away before you open the door, so there's no risk of having to interact with him at all.

Mod me down to "-9.99999E99, Troll" for all I care. I actually enjoy quality food, made by a real human being, not some shitty automation. In fact I think I'll make myself a lovely bacon cheeseburger at home tonight for dinner, using only the finest ingredients and apple-smoked bacon, lovingly made by Yours Truly. Anything made by another human being, even if you're the only one eating it, is orders of magnitude better than anything any shitty machine assembles. FFS you may as well just have a vending machine spitting out some frozen thing that gets microwaved. Guess some of you have no taste.

Re:So what, who cares?

[apoc.famine]

Can you explain what this "robot" does that radically differs from what a human does when making a hamburger? Because I watched the appallingly shitty video they have for it, and I don't see anything that wouldn't also be done by a human. Slightly different tools, but that's it. It grinds the meat, slices a fresh bun in half, toasts it, seasons the meat, cooks it, slices tomatoes, shreds lettuce and cheese, applies sauces, and then stacks it all up.

What do humans do that makes their hamburger superior and "quality"?

No Thanks

[KerryBoehm]

I prefer my burgers not too particular, not too precise.

Re:So what, who cares?

[Rick Schumann]

Can you tell me that this so-called 'robot' (just an automated machine, like in my several examples) actually understands what it's doing, that a living being is going to put that thing it's constructing into it's mouth and swallow it, and that it's taking care in what it's doing because it's not just part of a car it's putting together, or a washing machine, or something else that factory robots do? Does it know if it makes a mistake? Can it take Special Orders and make me a custom hamburger? Does it know the difference between Rare, Medium, and Well Done? Does it have enough smarts to give a fuck? No? Then I don't want it.

Re:So what, who cares?

[apoc.famine]

If you require smarts and agency for food prep, I'm guessing you don't own a toaster, right? Because only a human with enough smarts to give a fuck could make adequate toast. Or coffee. Or popcorn.

Why would it need to understand what it's doing? One part of this thing is a toaster. I'm assuming that you're ok with that part of the automation. Why not the slicing of veg? The grilling of meat? It's the same thing.