This robot-powered burger joint could put fast food workers out of a job
This robot-powered burger joint could put fast food
workers out of a job
Melia Robinson
Jun. 30, 2016, 4:50 PM
A robot-powered burger joint is coming to San Francisco.
In 2012, secretive robotics startup Momentum Machines
debuted a machine that could crank out 400 made-to-order hamburgers in an hour.
It's fully autonomous, meaning the robot can slice toppings, grill a patty, and
assemble and bag the burger without any help from humans. The internet flipped
out.
Years of relative silence ensued, but in January,
Hoodline's Brittany Hopkins learned that the San Francisco-based startup had
applied for a building permit to convert a ground-floor retail space in the
SoMa neighborhood into a restaurant.
Now it looks like the restaurant is actually happening. A
job posting on Craigslist from early June gives us our first glimpse into how
the company's future flagship, presumably opening soon, might work.
"This location will feature the world-premiere of
our proprietary and remarkable new advances in technology that enable the
automatic creation of impossibly delicious burgers at prices everyone can
afford," the ad explains.
According to the job posting, Momentum Machines is
looking for a self-motivated, conscientious applicant to take on the role of
"restaurant generalist" at the restaurant.
It describes the ideal candidate as
"autonomous," which seems about right since future robotic coworkers
will also be quite autonomous.
But just because robots make the food doesn't mean there
isn't human-worthy work to be done.
"[You will] learn to do everything that's part of
running a restaurant in San Francisco," the ad explains. That includes
taking customers' orders, scheduling shifts, and occasionally taking out the
trash and tidying up.
The role will also challenge the applicant to "pick
up some new skills that aren't part of typical restaurant work," such as
software troubleshooting, market research, and product development.
The word "robot" is not mentioned in the job
posting.
In 2012, Momentum Machines created a prototype machine
that allowed every part of a burger to be customized, from cook time,
condiments, and thickness of patties, depending on the day's menu.
A schematic of what the burger-bot looked like, released
that year, showed a 24-square-foot Rube Goldberg-like machine, complete with a
stamper that grinds and shapes custom blends of meat (like a one-third pork,
two-thirds bison behemoth of a burger) and an oven.
"The burgers sold at 680 Folsom will be fresh-ground
and grilled to order, served on toasted brioche, and accented by an infinitely
personalizable variety of fresh produce, seasonings, and sauces,"
according to the Craiglist ad.
The prototype could replace two to three full-time line
cooks, saving a fast-food restaurant up to $90,000 a year in training,
salaries, and overhead costs, tech blog Xconomy reported after catching a live
demo.
"Our device isn't meant to make employees more
efficient," Momentum Machines cofounder Alexandros Vardakostas told
Xconomy in 2012. "It's meant to completely obviate them."
A meaty controversy is shaping up
From the consumer side of things, a Momentum Machines
restaurant is a burger lover's dream. Your burger arrives exactly as you like
it.
A recent post on tech blog Nanalyze describes the perks
of an automated cooking process: No robot will ever spit in your food or add
mayo when you asked for the burger without. A robot won't take an extra minute
to prepare your meal because it's checking Facebook.
Burgers will be fast, cheap, and personalized for your
taste buds.
San Franciscans, at least, are already warming up to the
idea of a restaurant experience with minimal human interactions. In 2015,
futuristic food-chain Eatsa opened downtown. The vegetarian restaurant, which
specializes in quinoa bowls, uses technology to automate the ordering and
pick-up process.
But not everyone will be on board with the burger-bot,
which takes automation to the next level. Momentum Machines' technology
eliminates the need for line cooks (though front-of-house and custodial staff
will likely still be essential).
It also raises the ongoing question: Will robots steal
our jobs? The answer, according to Momentum Machines, is yes. But that's okay.
In 2012, Business Insider reported that the company
thinks it can actually promote job growth by letting robots fill in for humans
in the kitchen. Momentum Machines may, for example, have to hire new employees
to grow their technology and to staff additional restaurant locations.
There is no scheduled opening date for the Momentum
Machines restaurant, and the company did not immediately respond to a request
for comment. We'll be over here, salivating, in the meantime.
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