> for what amounts to a quality of life improvement for the current staff.

Not to be cynical, but I doubt White Castle are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. The $100k per restaurant likely saves them having to hire and train and retain and provide health benefits to an employee. If a human employee costs them $50/hr all in (pay/health insurance/bennies/HR & payroll overhead), and the human employee works 40hrs/wk and 50wks/yr, the robot pays for itself in just a year. Not to mention that ideally the robot is more consistent and takes less time off and doesn't call in sick with a hangover.