Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Great. All that's needed now is to make robots that buy and eat that fast food that the other robots are making.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Startup claims it's created a robot that entirely replaces fast-food kitchen staff
- Thread starter Kinitari
- Start date
- Status
Now that money is speech and corporations are people, #2 is seemingly inevitable in the US.
AstroNut325
Member
Yup. At least in the US.
Not that I'd actually like to see more employment crushing technology enter the marketplace in this manner, but I was really thinking something like this would have helped when I was at Wendy's two weeks ago. Line was practically out the door, and they only had one cashier and maybe two people in the kitchen, although there were probably three running the drive-thru. Lady running the register didn't even pretend to be hurrying. Took me nearly half an hour to get my food.
BURGER OVERLOAD!!! PICKLE SLICES ON THE WALLS AHHHH
I'll take a #2 with a large fries. Wait what?
Next up: Robot Janitors!
SniperHunter
Banned
hahaha
How is every responses so far not laughing at how poorly this will work?
This robot doesn't make fries, onion rings, chicken, drinks, ice cream, fish, salads, juice, breakfast, or anything else thats a staple of fast food. They'll still need to employ the same amount of people to cover for all the things this robot doesn't do. It's not likely to handle the large variety of burgers that come with different sized patties and buns with different condiments and limited time or specialty foods will be a nightmare. Standard custom orders that aren't explicitly on the menu and change from region to region will be almost impossible to account for in the robots design. There's still a long way to go before this is remotely feasible without completely rehauling the system.
This robot doesn't make fries, onion rings, chicken, drinks, ice cream, fish, salads, juice, breakfast, or anything else thats a staple of fast food. They'll still need to employ the same amount of people to cover for all the things this robot doesn't do. It's not likely to handle the large variety of burgers that come with different sized patties and buns with different condiments and limited time or specialty foods will be a nightmare. Standard custom orders that aren't explicitly on the menu and change from region to region will be almost impossible to account for in the robots design. There's still a long way to go before this is remotely feasible without completely rehauling the system.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
None of those food items sound like they couldn't get cooked, prepared, and served by robots.
I see everyone being pessimistic but imagine if it doesn't turn out too bad. I still see a lot of people working at supermarkets despite an increase in self-checkout isles and maybe this has lead to people being diverted to the stockrooms, offering new services like cooked food and newer jobs. If these robots become more popular and things like Pizzas from vending machines increase could people instead do things like urmm..... cleaning, maintenance and.... OK i am kinda stuck. Maybe these robots could become cheaper and smaller businesses could adopt them and maybe some entrepenaurialship and.... OK i am chatting bollocks now. I don't know how this can end out well. But i do remember people complaining that technological advancement from computers would put people out of work for simple data entry tasks and shit like that. But look at how rarely you need to speak to an operator to put a call through, look at how the money you save from Amazon allows you to purchase more shit, how many more jobs the internet has created etc etc.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
Inevitably though, you will sooner or later reach a point where we simply won't need as many people to efficiently run society.
Sooner or later, people are going to have to take a hard look at what societal structure is the most ideal at such a point.
HINT:
It's not capitalism.
Sure "a" robot could do it, but not "this" robot. Until they can make a fast food super robot that does it all or a series of highly compact specialized robots that can fit into the same spaces currently available it's a waste for any fast food restaurant to even consider. They'd also need to be incredibly low maintenance and have next to zero chance of malfunction. If you're burger machine goes down during lunch you can't afford 45 minutes to access and repair it. There's a reason people who work in fast food can do just about every job.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
I don't even think you need a robot for something as basic as cooking and assembling pre-prepared ingredients. Theoretically, it can be done with some type of assembly line. So a bun is dropped, toasted, while a burger is heated up or fried and flipped in one of three chambers (chicken, beef, vegetarian) and slid onto the bun, sause is squirted on, then vegetables.
Or whatever, you get the idea.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
It's funny. Something more relevant today than before was Isaac Asimov's "robot" universe and especially its future earth: where the population disliked robots and AI, and world governments eventually agreed to essentially move most advanced robotic operations off Earth. In order to preserve human jobs and the social structure people had been used to, rather than rebuild society to deal with the advance of technology.
And now vegetarians don't eat at your restaurant because the veggie burger is prepared with the same machine as animal products. Or there's mustard residue on my burger from the one before it. Or a stray sesame seed, onion, pickle, etc.
Some startup isn't going to beat McDonald's at cost cutting. If it were remotely feasible they'd already be doing it.
Really?
Robots gotta be better than what's there now.
...
....
.....
?
Where is the ham and cheese pita?
Shining Sunshine
Banned
How fast can a robot make me one of these?
Klaymator14
Member
This robot is only really able to exist in the framework of a world that requires... hamburgers.
That sounds funny and blatantly obvious, but at least for now, the vast investment and capital costs are... obviated... by the consistent and reliable demand for burgers.
If you start to do this for each speciality food item on the menu, it becomes perhaps less justifiable. Again, at least for now.
Of course... at some point, the technology will become versatile enough to basically replace human labour, not just burger making. That tech isn't nearly as far away as many think.
If the robot is able to use the cognitive skills of visual object recognition and can understand physical interactions; both things that have been demonstrated in existing technology to limited levels already... then we'll have a generalized solution for destroying all basic labour jobs.
In general, advancements like this are a great thing, hastening us towards the necessity of a post-labour (and tangentially, post-scarcity) society. But we *will* be in for a world of hurt before we get to the stage where society reforms to recognize that... the luddites were indeed correct - technology and advancements destroying jobs now outpaces technology and advancements creating jobs.
That sounds funny and blatantly obvious, but at least for now, the vast investment and capital costs are... obviated... by the consistent and reliable demand for burgers.
If you start to do this for each speciality food item on the menu, it becomes perhaps less justifiable. Again, at least for now.
Of course... at some point, the technology will become versatile enough to basically replace human labour, not just burger making. That tech isn't nearly as far away as many think.
If the robot is able to use the cognitive skills of visual object recognition and can understand physical interactions; both things that have been demonstrated in existing technology to limited levels already... then we'll have a generalized solution for destroying all basic labour jobs.
In general, advancements like this are a great thing, hastening us towards the necessity of a post-labour (and tangentially, post-scarcity) society. But we *will* be in for a world of hurt before we get to the stage where society reforms to recognize that... the luddites were indeed correct - technology and advancements destroying jobs now outpaces technology and advancements creating jobs.
I don't mind. I think people are their best when they do creative things and express themselves, having robots do mundane things like making crappy burgers will only help other people focus their energy on being creative. Obviously there'll be growing pains, but I can't really see how you could avoid that, or why one would want to continue to work in this kind of environment of mediocrity. (unless your passion is flipping burgers, but than you can make a "hanks home made flipped burgers business" and be done with it).
Anyway, I think this is a good thing.
Anyway, I think this is a good thing.
youngwerther
Banned
Looks like I'm out of a job.
Wow, what kind of fantasy world do you live in?
Here's a good reason - hunger.
Air said:
Wow, what kind of fantasy world do you live in?
Here's a good reason - hunger.
maniac-kun
Member
So this will destroy even the low class jobs that everyone could do without any education. If it works as they advertise it.
Maybe we are seeing a new industrial revolution where actual workers are not needed anymore in the prossessing of goods.
Maybe we are seeing a new industrial revolution where actual workers are not needed anymore in the prossessing of goods.
If these things keep gaining ground, than we'll have to think about reforming how we do business and servicing each other. If that change does happen, than I don't think the problem you will have is hunger, but what can I do to express myself/help society. I mean, I'm not saying this is the only way it can work, just that I would hope people can do more with their lives than just skate by.
I can't wait until robot cars become common and I can use a smartphone app to order a taxi right to my GPS pin-pointed location, get driven to my destination based on the most efficient route being fed to the robot taxi by crowd-sourced traffic data, and then have my credit card debited from my phone instantly to pay.
Going to really suck for taxi drivers though.
Going to really suck for taxi drivers though.
I'm REALLY ok with this. The number of times I've almost been killed by terrible taxicab drivers is a little ridiculous. Better they go!
apocalidiot
Banned
Soup is good food
And obviously what the people who make their living off these jobs and manage to make it stretch need is to lose their jobs as a kick in the pants to spend thousands of dollars they don't have to get a college education in order to get a 'skilled' job.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
Goes to show that societies in which it costs thousands of dollars to get a college education will be hit the hardest by automation of low-skilled jobs, whereas those that provide cheaper education will be affected less.
So the USA can either fight against automation, and potentially lose their edge as other countries take advantage of them, or accept a healthy dose of socialism.
apocalidiot
Banned
youngwerther
Banned
Yeah, everyone should just go to college.
Because we've seen how that has worked out.
This is basically a less snarky version of what my real point was. It's really fucking easy to say that people shouldn't have to work jobs like that, but if you really believe that you'd damn well better be willing to support transforming your society into one that doesn't need/force them to. Otherwise you're just going to wind up with a lot of really poor people.
Ether_Snake
å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®
I'm surprised McDonald's haven't all been replaced by vending machines to be honest.
On another note, if it's cheaper to run a restaurant, more people can get into the business.
On another note, if it's cheaper to run a restaurant, more people can get into the business.
hillsighed
Member
Robots gotta be better than what's there now.
Lmao @ the Whopper. Looks like a fucking flat tire with lettuce.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
A lot of really poor people might just be what the US needs to start a socialist revolution.
God knows it's about time, most European countries got it over with about a century ago.
way more
Member
Snap!
gregor7777
Banned
It's so simple, but so damn funny.
lastplayed
Member
Here's the robot waiter.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked