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I don't really understand the appeal of these restaurants. While living in Boston I went to the MIT "automated" wock-esque' restaurants a few times. It wasn't

I don't really understand the appeal of these restaurants. While living in Boston I went to the MIT "automated" wock-esque' restaurants a few times. It wasn't even that, "automated" per-se outside of the wock-cooking. Humans still handled a majority of meal prep, stocking machines, and dealing with payment problems. IMO I'd rather have spent less money at the neighboring Chipotle for better food.

xkcd-sucks 8y ago
Yeah but you can't actually see and hear the people getting paid shit to chop up veggies, so it feels less exploitative Also-- There's more than one company doing that?? Or just one with several locations
robbyking 8y ago
I recently left the Bay Area to live in a major city in another state, and now that it's a little easier to see the tech forest through the trees, I see that for now, very few people want a lot of these types services outside of usual tech centric hubs. It's like in the Kurt Vonnegut book Player Piano: there are certain services where people enjoy the human touch; I think food service is one of those.
- pretendscholar 8y ago
  I'd prefer less human touch on my food.
- notahacker 8y ago
  Certainly automation of food service was a problem solved in the early 1900s for those that wanted fast food and coffees without being asked by someone if they'd like fries or a muffin; just turned out that in most situations it was actually a less successful business model...
- colmvp 8y ago
  Honestly, when it comes to slices of pizza or a burger (fast food in general), I couldn't care less about the human touch, and I've been to some of the best pizzeria's / burger joints in NY/LA/SF. I might care my first time going, but anytime after that, I just care about getting my food and eating it.
- briandear 8y ago
  Machines don’t put mustard on when you tell it no mustard. Machines don’t give you attitude either. Machines don’t spit on your food or do any number of disgusting things that fast food workers have been known to do.
  - econochoice 8y ago
    Machines will never comply with "Can I please have more than the two ketchup packets that management woefully let's you give me?" or "How are you doing?"
acchow 8y ago
The goal is to make the same product for cheaper.

xkcd-sucks 8y ago

Yeah but you can't actually see and hear the people getting paid shit to chop up veggies, so it feels less exploitative Also-- There's more than one company doing that?? Or just one with several locations

robbyking 8y ago

I recently left the Bay Area to live in a major city in another state, and now that it's a little easier to see the tech forest through the trees, I see that for now, very few people want a lot of these types services outside of usual tech centric hubs. It's like in the Kurt Vonnegut book Player Piano: there are certain services where people enjoy the human touch; I think food service is one of those.

pretendscholar 8y ago
I'd prefer less human touch on my food.
notahacker 8y ago
Certainly automation of food service was a problem solved in the early 1900s for those that wanted fast food and coffees without being asked by someone if they'd like fries or a muffin; just turned out that in most situations it was actually a less successful business model...
colmvp 8y ago
Honestly, when it comes to slices of pizza or a burger (fast food in general), I couldn't care less about the human touch, and I've been to some of the best pizzeria's / burger joints in NY/LA/SF. I might care my first time going, but anytime after that, I just care about getting my food and eating it.
briandear 8y ago
Machines don’t put mustard on when you tell it no mustard. Machines don’t give you attitude either. Machines don’t spit on your food or do any number of disgusting things that fast food workers have been known to do.
- econochoice 8y ago
  Machines will never comply with "Can I please have more than the two ketchup packets that management woefully let's you give me?" or "How are you doing?"

acchow 8y ago

The goal is to make the same product for cheaper.