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San Francisco's first automated restaurant is 'pure magic'
- schoen 11y agoI find it weird that this is called "San Francisco's first automated restaurant". Automated restaurants were widespread throughout the early-to-mid-20th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat From the descriptions, it's not clear that the level of automation in the new automated restaurant is that much higher than in a traditional automat. (Like in previous automats, there are still human beings working in a kitchen out-of-sight behind the wall.) Other journalists called this particular restaurant "a new take on an old model", "a new take on the classic automat", and "the return of the automat". An automat company was "once the world's largest restaurant chain": http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/meet-me-at-the-automat-47804151/?no-ist http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/meet-me-at-the-automat...
- blacksmith_tb 11y agoThis article is originally from The Guardian (where it has better images) http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/19/robot-based-economy-san-francisco http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/19/robot-base...
- Dr_tldr 11y agoThis sounds more like a mechanical turk than actual automation. A restaurant without waiters is usually called a cafeteria or a deli, not "pure magic." This article is credulous and obfuscating to the point of dishonesty, even if only through emphasis. By the dubious logic shown here, if Uber put a divider between the passenger and the driver, it would be a self-driving car. Their definition of automatic seems to be "not seeing a person" instead of "not needing a person."