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tldr from my pervious experience managing bars: neat idea but it wont fly from what I saw. First, these robots are WAY too slow. A more efficient mechanism tha

tldr from my pervious experience managing bars: neat idea but it wont fly from what I saw. First, these robots are WAY too slow. A more efficient mechanism than those arms is sorely needed. A good bartender on a busy night can make ~100 drinks an hour (not at a bar with lots of complicated drinks). There is no way these are going to keep up. Handling an issue with the machine means at least having someone there to troubleshoot but also likely means having a human bartender on staff anyways. If it breaks somehow you have a large decoration I guess but more likely an angry bartender with no backup. Also the space these would take up is prohibitive to most restaurants. Bartenders will need space to move back and forth around their bar, stock items, etc. If they are sharing the bar with a robot I hope they aren't pulling from the same stock because they will both want to make cocktails from the same ingredients, which would be entertaining to watch at least. Humans can navigate that blockage more easily: "Hey I need 6 gin and tonics and two rum and cokes" vs a queue where those orders may be mixed up. Knowing how to manage that takes more than simple grouping. I could write a lot more about

MegaButts 10y ago
I think you make a good point. I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted. A very common mistake from engineers who become entrepreneurs is to not understand the markets they're trying to enter, or even their customers. They think they have a cool tech solution and everybody will see the world like they do. Then they launch and find out they have a novelty that loses money. I don't know the specifics of this business, but trying to build a robot for X without understanding X is a great way to lose money.
Baeocystin 10y ago
> A good bartender on a busy night can make ~100 drinks an hour The article states they're good for 120 drinks/hour. FWIW.
- cblock811 10y ago
  I must have overlooked that. Thanks for pointing that out.
eddyg 10y ago
As someone who has used the Makr Shakr system, not having to wait for waitstaff to come around, wait for them to write down your custom drink order, wait while they walk around and ask anybody else if they want anything, wait for bartender to make the drinks, wait for waitstaff to bring the drinks back to your table... a pretty slow process from start to finish. The robotic bartender experience was far superior, and allowed you to customize your drink, save it for future ordering, and have it prepared with automated precision (so it tasted the exact same, every time.) And because you could queue up orders whenever you wanted, you were never looking around for waitstaff. It was great! Admittedly this is a much different scenario than a bar in a college town on $1 draft night, but I don't think that's the target of this "first gen" robotic bartender.

MegaButts 10y ago

I think you make a good point. I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted. A very common mistake from engineers who become entrepreneurs is to not understand the markets they're trying to enter, or even their customers. They think they have a cool tech solution and everybody will see the world like they do. Then they launch and find out they have a novelty that loses money. I don't know the specifics of this business, but trying to build a robot for X without understanding X is a great way to lose money.

Baeocystin 10y ago

> A good bartender on a busy night can make ~100 drinks an hour The article states they're good for 120 drinks/hour. FWIW.

cblock811 10y ago
I must have overlooked that. Thanks for pointing that out.

eddyg 10y ago

As someone who has used the Makr Shakr system, not having to wait for waitstaff to come around, wait for them to write down your custom drink order, wait while they walk around and ask anybody else if they want anything, wait for bartender to make the drinks, wait for waitstaff to bring the drinks back to your table... a pretty slow process from start to finish. The robotic bartender experience was far superior, and allowed you to customize your drink, save it for future ordering, and have it prepared with automated precision (so it tasted the exact same, every time.) And because you could queue up orders whenever you wanted, you were never looking around for waitstaff. It was great! Admittedly this is a much different scenario than a bar in a college town on $1 draft night, but I don't think that's the target of this "first gen" robotic bartender.