What Silicon Valley doesn't get about robotics automation

What people fail to notice that high throughput restaurant applications already use a lot of automation.

Your Starbucks barista isn't carefully timing the blend on your frappucino. Nope, the scoop stuff into a blender and hit the frap button. McDonalds has all sorts of specialized cooking equipment that removes judgment and streamlines the process of preparing meals. A great example is the automatic drinks filler with its conveyor belt full of cups.

This represents the low hanging fruit for automation.

It's surprisingly tricky to make machines that don't mutilate workers in the vicinity and can handle all the weirdness that reality presents, even if it is only in the reduced scope of "how to make a hamburger". Throwing a robotic "elbow" into someone can be pretty damaging, working safely with knives and cooking temperature devices is even harder.

Instead of automating, making customers to do the work seems to be more effective way to reduce workforce in hyperlocal markets.

Things like self-service checkout, customers pouring beverages themselves, vending machines etc. have become more common as time goes buy. It's minimal automation that helps customers to serve themselves.