> A few places have been switching to using those robots on wheels to run food to tables.
Is this not just a gimmick? You still need people on hand to take over if the robot has an issue, I don't see how it would reduce labour costs.
Is this not just a gimmick? You still need people on hand to take over if the robot has an issue, I don't see how it would reduce labour costs.
"take over IF the robot has an issue" is exactly how it reduces labor costs.
2020: 10 waiters, waiting tables. You're on the hook for each of their salaries.
2030: 10 robots, one human waiter passively overseeing the cluster. You're on the hook for minor parts/occasional repair for the robots, and one person's salary.
Its not about a 100% staff elimination, but a large overhead reduction ensuring the few humans you're keeping around are more efficient overall for dollars generated in revenue versus the all-human staff before.
Plus, in certain cases, like kiosks replacing cashiers at fast food establishments, there's now one less qualification needed from employees (good social skills), increasing the pool of acceptable options you can hire where before some of those candidates would have been unsuitable for the job.
And what do the robots do? Wheel the food to the table, where the customers then need to reach for the plates and pass them around? Not a great experience. Or actually set the plate in front of each diner, without dumping it, like a human waiter does? Much more sophisticated and expensive robot.
It's not fast food, because customers pick up their own food from the counter there. Ditto with fast casual.
Fine dining restaurants would see huge drops in business if they tried to replace human wait staff with robots. (Unless they're already doing some kind of futuristic theming.)
So you're targeting low-end table-service restaurants...to replace their below-minimum-wage wait staff (remember, tipped minimum wage is something like $2.30 federally) with robots that don't get tips, do require a hefty up-front investment and nontrivial maintenance costs, probably a subscription with the company that sells them, and are likely to have a lot of problems especially for the early adopters—things like dropping meals, crashing into tables, crashing into customers, running over toes, purses, and small children...
This really seems like it's something that's going to work for a few gimmicks, but not in any widespread manner within the foreseeable future.
Who the fuck would go to a restaurant like this.
it's certainly not service that hasn't been good for a decade now. it's a consistent product not abysmal not great.
if a robot could reduce the chance of me getting soggy french fries and non crispy nuggies that's fine bring in the robot.
also lol plates and tables, how long has it been since you ate fast food? people eat in their car to avoid dealing with the shouting staff,dirty floor and sticky tables.
It's not like you need a touch screen anymore though, chatbots are good enough you should be able to read off your order from a paper menu just like at a normal restaurant. Proper tooling is required to avoid the chatbot taking orders for something silly. Now, having a microphone enabled bot does bring up the question of voice recordings. Sometimes people go to restaurants to talk about sensitive subjects and don't want the whole conversation recorded and sent to a data broker.
People may perceive not having human wait staff as "cheaping out", and there are lots of status-related reasons people go out to eat. Backend is possibly more ripe for automation because people don't see it. Lots of companies building dedicated in-franchise assemblylines for submarine sandwiches or poki bowls.
Vegas has a "robot bar" where the robo arm can prepare something like 50 different cocktails. The robot is cool but the menu software was horribly put together and it crashed before I could finish putting together an order. The human attendant came over to tell me I'm not allowed to hack the robot. Bad software saved me $15, thanks.
I don't use them; not because of any moral objection, but because they can't come inside buildings. The whole point of food delivery is to avoid going outside. Most human couriers come directly to your unit. The food delivery companies have spoiled us too much, and we are not ready to return to a world where you have to put on shoes to get food. Oddly, the delivery robots are probably better suited to suburbia, where folks are used to answering the front door to pick up a food delivery. But the distances involved aren't viable until you have delivery Waymos that can move at highway speeds.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202609/10/WS6aa122a5e4b06d4a...