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Actually I worked at a McDonalds in high school, did a lot of research on AI and robotics in college, and do automation with robotics now for the biomedical ind

Actually I worked at a McDonalds in high school, did a lot of research on AI and robotics in college, and do automation with robotics now for the biomedical industry. I've explained it in detail before when someone made your point, but suffice to say that nobody is going to automate a McDonalds anytime soon. A robot equal to a human costs $50,000 at least. If you have someone working for $10 an hour, that is 5,000 hours or 2.5 years payback on the robot. And the robot is far less flexible (and $50k is a super low number). When you have 3-10 year pay off on a robot, why would you do it? Robots really aren't built for menial tasks. Where do you see robots in the auto industry? Painting and welding. Painting is a skill job. Welding is a skill job. A good painter or welder is not making far off of what an entry level coder is making (if you don't believe me, find out how much it costs to weld oil pipeline or ship structure). They didn't take over Detroit to displace cheap labor, they did it to increase quality. The reasons for automation are usually increasing quality or doing something humans physically can't (speed, precision, strength etc). Rarely do you see it worthwhile to replace a human with a robot for a menial hand task. So no, McDonalds will not be taken over by robots. The economics of it just don't make sense.

natrius 16y ago
The economics will make sense in our lifetimes. For a more concrete value, let's say 50 years. Also, McDonalds is open far more than 40 hours a week. It's more like 6am to 1am, seven days a week. That gets paid off in 8.5 months. The real number would be a little higher than that due to fluctuations in demand throughout the day that would require extra robots that aren't fully utilized. Even if you triple the cost of the robot, that still isn't an unreasonable cost/benefit ratio. Within the next 50 years, it will be a no-brainer.
zacharypinter 16y ago
For a great example of where things are heading, look at RedBox. They've found a way to produce machines that bring more benefit than they cost. It's forseeable that a burger machine could be made in the near future with similar economics.

natrius 16y ago

The economics will make sense in our lifetimes. For a more concrete value, let's say 50 years. Also, McDonalds is open far more than 40 hours a week. It's more like 6am to 1am, seven days a week. That gets paid off in 8.5 months. The real number would be a little higher than that due to fluctuations in demand throughout the day that would require extra robots that aren't fully utilized. Even if you triple the cost of the robot, that still isn't an unreasonable cost/benefit ratio. Within the next 50 years, it will be a no-brainer.

zacharypinter 16y ago

For a great example of where things are heading, look at RedBox. They've found a way to produce machines that bring more benefit than they cost. It's forseeable that a burger machine could be made in the near future with similar economics.