<i>"The improved workflow allows for the redeployment of team members to focus on creating memorable moments for customers."</i><p>I... doubt it? It seems like it would allow the redeployment of team members to "no longer working at White Castle".
This is actually an area where automation has some significant potential. Taking orders with a menu on a webpage or an app is a classic at this point. I remember seeing not just vending machines, but a vending wall at Amsterdam Central train station where a chef would fill transparent boxes with freshly fried snacks, to be sold automatically.<p>Cooking is an enormous working-class employer and it is getting automated — will it lower demand for work? Most people still cook their own food, so there‘s a lot more cooking service that could be sold, but at this point, the economies of scale point at fewer people manning the frier, and just one person monitoring several robots.
Next: get your bag from a chute in the drivethru lane. No humans in the store at all!<p>I'm not sure that would be a bad thing. Made-to-order food, always the same, packaged without anyone ever touching it, for a good price. Would be hard to beat.
I've been wondering: if this robot is only flipping fries, could it be made by putting the basket on a simple track, and adding an actuator to move the basket along a track? Why need an arm?<p>My speculation: a robotic arm makes for a great press release. Actuator + track feels like a factory.
I wonder when the costs of scale will start to come in? This is interesting because it retrofits an existing kitchen, but it can't be much cheaper than just having something that was built from the ground-up to be an automated grill?<p>Those arms are also usually in cages or somewhat enclosed for safety reasons, are employees just expected to walk around it?
I'm skeptical that Miso Robotics can actually deliver a useful product that outperforms or matches human labor at the same price point. They don't show clear videos of what exactly the robot is capable of, and keep buying Instagram ads to invest in their company.
I saw the movie Harold vs Kumar and I've always wondered what was so special about these tiny burgers? Are they as good as it is portrayed? It's on my bucket list lol
Interesting deal for Miso Robotics - per their website, the Flippy 2 starts at $3000 per month, so that's maybe a $7.5 million deal per year assuming 2 robots per location.<p>In terms of location costs, 2 machines with maintenance might be around $10k per month per location. Definitely a cost savings move for White Castle - I reckon 24 hour coverage with staff would be more than that.<p>I guess there's no avoiding this - with inflation the way it is, and the inability of certain businesses to raise prices (fast food burgers at $15 a pop?), and real estate going crazy, we are certainly moving to a Star Wars type future where "droids" of some sort will be in most aspects of our lives. All this money printing has a cost.<p>Bit sad that our kids won't have the experience of working in fast-food as their "summer job", nor will they have humans serving them from behind the counter. Cold and clinical...
The number of fast food burger and chicken joints I don't eat at anymore is pretty close to all of them.<p>Subway was the first one I quit and that was back in the early `80s. McDs was around the turn on the century. Burger King & Jack in the Box, ect were somewhere in between those. I've had a few Arby's sandwiches since then, they're not great but were still edible last time I ate there, and that's been a couple years now.<p>Good food will make you feel good. Those fast food joints don't do that. You notice this more when you're working physically hard. They just don't provide any real fuel to get you through that, and that's why I quit eating at those places.
I for one would welcome automation in fast food industry. Besides the fact that a teen standing in front of a vat of hot oil cooking fries and flipping burgers is a waste of time if we could automate it humans should be free of this kind of useless service, I would also enjoy getting exactly what I ordered. The robot isn’t going to accidentally add pickles or forget to add gravy or dip. I would welcome the day I don’t have to inspect my order. On my first point the only problem I see is people need money and those have forever been entry level jobs. What would replace those incomes I don’t know but standing in front of oil is not very good way to spend your time.
Got to say I would prefer a robot then a possibly disgruntled human to prepare my food.<p>That being said I hope we will see some kind of UBI in return for all the money that will be saved once robots take over these menial jobs.
Back in the early 2010s, I was consulting with a then-budding startup called Momentum Machines (now Creator.rest), in which I was tasked with market validation for their Rube Goldberg-esque 6mx1mx2m burger-making machine (not a robot). When I'd speak with both independent and multi-franchise QSR owners, the resounding sentiment was that they absolutely craved an automated solution to replace line cooks, but they could not imagine replacing cashiers, who they believed were the face of the brand.<p>But in speaking with the few corporate offices that would bother to even respond to us, we'd be brushed us aside as nothing more than a novelty, as they considered any introduction of automation anywhere in the food-assembly process to be a hit to their brand promise of "freshness" and "quality."<p>Now with the Great Resignation giving employees a bit of an upper hand, I'm pretty sure the corporates are changing their tune in displacing the $15+/hr/unit meat suits ASAP. They're just waiting for the regional/tier-3 QSRs like White Castle to go all-in before making the plunge themselves.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.creator.rest" rel="nofollow">https://www.creator.rest</a>
I don't think humans evolved to do the job of a robot. At least not as much as the industrial revolution and mega corporations would have them do. I believe humans need/want some mix of mindless (cathartic) and some creative (mentally difficult) tasks.<p>For the last ~100 years now we've optimized our ability to create jobs that are mindless because this makes hiring easier. The side effect of this is a workforce full of people who never get to work creatively and go home feeling drained, worthless, and depressed<p>I'm optimistic about all automation because it relieves some of the pressure of mindless work off of humans and frees them up to be creative. Now if only we had a social system in place to redirect some of the profits from automation toward supporting fellow citizens who want to do legitimate hard work on a brand new idea...
Would White Castle have more demand with even lower prices? Is price and not quality the factor in most people's decision to eat at White Castle or not? It seems like this won't end well for employees or the corporation because the root cause is that White Castle just isn't that tasty.
There is one in Seattle at Caliburger in the Westlake Mall.<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/camilo-buscaron-93739827_seattle-robotics-ugcPost-6905959768742313984-hz-b?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/posts/camilo-buscaron-93739827_seat...</a>
On one hand I'll be able to go to the restaurants for faster and better food which is cool for people like us with not a lot of free time, and robots are cool.<p>On the other hand there will be a very large portion of society who will become obsolete with absolutely nothing useful for society to do.
This is kinda silly because I bet they could've made burgers with a robot long ago (mass produced and shipped in) and just heated it up from a frozen stage when you order. Part of me suspects the whole 'combining the meat with the bun' at-location component is kind of superfluous and is just there to make the food feel freshly made (despite being heavily produced). So this robot with that in mind is kind of silly.
Big fan of White Castle food, but they have the worst organized kitchens of any fast food place I've ever gone to. When I go there, I expect to wait as long for my food as it would take to cook it at home. Employees are confused about the menu, about who's responsible for what, they communicate with each other awkwardly, and there are probably half again as many as they need. It seems like they've put no effort into process at all.<p>Any effort would result in service improvement.<p>White Castle's burgers are weird and small, standardized and square, and cooked from frozen. Not exactly a general case for a burger-robot; sliders seem like they could easily be made in a vending machine. My bet is that somebody connected with White Castle is an investor, and this is a publicity stunt.