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These are all environments designed for humans. Vending machines already get warm food, and fresh coffee to me. The system once automated will not look just lik

• bmelton 9y ago
  Agreed. Watch "The Founder". The amount of workplace efficiency brought by the McDonald brothers would have been, and almost certainly was considered inconceivable by other restaurateurs of the era. "The system" was so good that it revolutionized the fast food market to the point that almost every attempt to buck the trend is now considered some sort of synonym to 'craft' or 'artisanal'. (Note: I'm taking the movie as canon, which is basically stupid, but I have a grandfather who would gladly tell you the story of his first McDonald's visit, and how revolutionary it was relative to everywhere else he'd been, but for his passage a few years back.)
• Noos 9y ago
  There's a lot to operating a physical establishment that machines can't do without reducing the experience. Something as simple as cleaning the tables will not be automated. You need people to provide service in a restaurant, which is why automats generally never take on. And we already have a model of what it will look like, laundromats. That's what people are aiming for, the patron doing a lot of the work with maybe one person to oversee and provide special services like dry cleaning. I don't think that would be an improvement in food service.