I think most of that has excited moral (I would call it political) panic at one point or another. But, there isn't anything special about these salad machines,

I think most of that has excited moral (I would call it political) panic at one point or another. But, there isn't anything special about these salad machines, I agree. The underlying narrative is a fear of automating lots of other things. The new wave of automation is still uncertain, we don't know how to identify nevermind personify the symbols and culprits of it. Automated kitchen robots are a nice stand-in for automation generally. Like the robots in the jetsons.