8 ms·
2019 = Order via speech recognition 2020 = Automated kitchen systems prepare ingredients 2021 = Burrito preparation via robotics 2021 = End-to-end order fulf
by jeffdubin 9y ago
2019 = Order via speech recognition
2020 = Automated kitchen systems prepare ingredients
2021 = Burrito preparation via robotics
2021 = End-to-end order fulfillment without human involvement
Just a matter of time before raw ingredients are lab grown and harvested by robots. Not too long ago, this was pure fantasy. Only now is it starting to look inevitable, for better or for worse.
- e_b 9y agoIt's still pure fantasy.
- nyolfen 9y agoevery one of the constituent parts presently exist, if in early forms. i think his timetable is far too compressed though.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoThere is a small chance that we will see something like Star Trek food replicators in our lifetime.
- throwaway7645 9y agoDo you mean matter replication (no we won't as this violates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle similar to the transporter), or something akin to a very complex vending machine that can make things from Ramen to Fajitas?
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoThe latter, a very fancy food printer.
- sergers 9y agoVoice based ordering is already available through Alexa and their iPhone app, cmg just behind the times
- labster 9y agoI guess what I don't understand is why we don't have more human-free systems for food payment. All of 15 years ago, I went in a company cafeteria in Tsukuba, paid a vending machine, and took the ticket to the cook. If I had been able to speak any Japanese back then, I probably could have customized my order there. But here in the US we're still hiring fast food workers to take standardized orders.
- mc32 9y agoBecause Japan's demographics made it imperative and conversely our importation of cheap labor subsidized or delayed the need to introduce automation to offset costs.
- feniv 9y agoCoin-operated vending machines for food was actually somewhat popular in the US in the early 1900ds before fast-food. Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
- kylec 9y agoThere's a burger chain here in the Bay Area called The Melt which has iPad-based kiosks where you can order your food, pay for it with a credit card, and pick up a buzzer (to let you know when it's ready) without having to talk to anyone. It's glorious. I wish all restaurants offered stuff like that.
- icebraining 9y agoThey're starting to appear. McDonalds has now introduced it in multiple European countries, plus isolated restaurants here and there (e.g. Burgerlich in Hamburg, which has touchscreens embedded in the tables: https://goo.gl/oJAh9v https://goo.gl/oJAh9v)
- bane 9y agoAlmost every McDonald's I've been to in Europe and Canada has a set of Kiosks where you can order what you want (in English) and pay. You then take a number from the kiosk and sit down and somebody brings your food out to you or screens display your pickup number when it's time. Most ones in the U.S. have stubbornly held on to the less efficient queue at the counter and talk to a bored human system.
- dawnerd 9y agoThe robots will still somehow make the burritos too large and the tortilla not properly contain it.
- sjg007 9y agoA burrito making robot sounds like a great kickstarter.