"Sounds like a really, really over-engineered solution. Especially since, as the article states, people want hand-crafted food nowadays." And in the next sente

"Sounds like a really, really over-engineered solution. Especially since, as the article states, people want hand-crafted food nowadays." And in the next sentence, the quoted analyst says that automation can play into this trend by taking over repetitive tasks. In this case, it looks like you're getting more freshly hand-tossed crust and more freshly prepped ingredients than your typical chain. I'm not that enthusiastic about the standard American pizza either, but as a popular way of feeding a family or group, it seems like an interesting target for automation. I agree that this is outrageously over-engineered - I imagine that this is a working prototype and that they hope to make a solution for a fraction of the cost and reproduce it across the country. This strikes me as a gamble, but not entirely crazy.