7 ms·

Cradle of Cantonese cuisine welcomes "robot restaurant complex"

60 points by rmason 6y ago

fortran77 6y ago
Robotic food preparation (at least for fast, simple meals) would be welcome in the post-Pandemic world.
- catalogia 6y ago
  There's little if any evidence to support fear of Corona transmission through food. You get corona by breathing it, not eating it. Restaurants have taken a hit because their dining areas are dangerous, not their kitchens (not to the consumer anyway, the employees are a hazard to each other.) I've been eating 7-11 hotdogs this entire time in a city that's been locked down for months; they never stopped food prep because there's really little reason to stop it. For that matter, our world has been "post-pandemic" for longer than recorded history. It's not even the first pandemic in the modern era.
  - fortran77 6y ago
    > There's little if any evidence to support fear of Corona transmission through food. You're probably right, but there's perception. And that's very important for marketing. Pizza delivery companies are advertising their pizza as "untouched by human hand" from the time they emerge from the oven to the time they get to your door. > It's not even the first pandemic in the modern era. We have short attention spans. Not everyone is a history expert/pedant like you.
    - catalogia 6y ago
      If my intent was to be pedantic, I would have pointed out that we're not post-corona because it's still ongoing. My actual point, which I had hoped you would infer, was that people have short attentions spans. I see little reason to believe corona will have lasting profound social impact when previous pandemics in the modern era did not. Judging by road traffic, people are already beginning to return to their normal lives even though this pandemic still hasn't run it's course. I think in a few years it will be nearly forgotten, just like the other pandemics.
- ben_w 6y ago
  Huh. I kinda assumed they already were. (I’m imagining instant noodles, many baked goods, and sandwiches).
contingencies 6y ago
I am a foreigner running a rival food automation venture in Guangdong. I had resigned from HN participation but thought to rejoin and post thoughts as this is quite close to our area. The venture under discussion Qianxi Robot Catering Group (千玺机器人餐饮集团系) who are owned by real estate group Country Garden (碧桂园 / 02007.HK) who invested 2.4B RMB (USD$33.5M) in the company. It has four subsidiaries including Zhiyuan Technology (智源科技), Bijiashun Kitchen (碧家顺厨), Youbisheng (优碧胜) and Biyouwei (碧有味). Background is that the parent group sees the combination of robotics, agriculture and real estate as a growth area. It reportedly spent USD$87M on robotics research in the first half of 2019 and will spent "at least" 80B RMB or USD$11.2B on robotics research in the next 5 years. This includes another company in the group '博智林机器人' (Bright Dream Robotics). For the current robotics restaurant group, in January 2020 it reports that it will "refine its mass production plan and expand its stores nationwide in 2020." Includes welcome robots, frying robots, dessert robots, burger robots, bartending robots, claypot rice robots, wok robots, cloud track systems and ground delivery robots, etc. 32 wok based cooking robots and a claypot robot that can make 24 claypot meals at the same time. My own investors have visited this venture and reported that there were technical problems prohibiting its automatic operation. It seems condiments are supplied by the numerous staff, rather than automatically, and many specific robot interfaces are also handled by staff. For the wok robots, it is reported there are 32 dishes made by robots, and it appears that each wok only makes one (fixed program). Note that the packaging for drinks appears to be the largest and most expensive type of take-away cups available which are presumably selected in order to minimize precision, rigidity and consistency related issues with cheaper plastic lid pressure application processes. There is no evidence of self cleaning. The burger frying robot appears to have the following structure based on two Kuka standard light weight industrial robot arms. The left side focuses on parallel burger frying in sets of three. The right side combines the deep fried (fries, possibly 'fish cakes'). The process is as follows. A uniform shaped, pre-cut half-bun is grilled and then placed on a new sheet of packaging. Pre-chopped lettuce is added by extracting an apparently weight-measured portion from an apparently hidden rotary dispenser. A chicken burger is fried and then lifted by pneumatic suction. Apparently either the burger or the top of the bun can have sauce applied, or the algorithm has changed. The top is placed on the burger then it is packaged by a complicated folding mechanism. Finally the result is stuck together with a sticker then lifted and placed in the output queue. Esimate cost of burger system: 2 linear motion systems + 2 robot arms + custom aluminium + grippers + pneumatics + stock framing + heating systems + industrial control systems + air extraction system + frying system + deep frying system + sauce dispensers. Conclusion: expensive, likely over USD$40,000 in parts before labour and design. Our venture - Infinite Food - retain what we believe to be a global technology lead in the sector and look forward to launching our world first service supplying personalized food retail from a network of kiosk form factor automated restaurants. invest at 8-food dot com if interested.
Animats 6y ago
This makes sense at scale. The restaurant seats 600. Some form of assembly line is essential.
- blackrock 6y ago
  The economics of this might be interesting. Say they are only targeting to make $1 per meal. And they’re opened for 14 hours a day, 10 am to 12 am midnight. And say they’re always operating at full capacity. And each table has a 45 minute window between turnovers, so you eat your meal in 45 minutes. So you’ve got about 18 rotations throughout your day. And assume the 600 seats are always optimally filled. Then, 18 x $600 = $10,800/day Then, in a year, this could theoretically become: $3.94 million/year. You could always adjust your numbers, like if they target $2 in profit per meal, then this could theoretically be $7.9 million/year. Then, at these rates, the initial capital outlay for these robots, might just be worthwhile. Say, you spend $1 million for the robots and machinery, then, it would take 3 months to recover that cost. Of course, you also have to factor in other costs like the front workers, cleaners, security, and dish washers (unless they have a robot for that too). But at least you don’t have to pay for a cook anymore. But you will have to pay for a Quality Assurance guy to watch the robots. And most people prefer to eat during the lunch and dinner rush, so you won’t get to hit the full theoretical operating capacity, thus limiting your profits. But you can try to make more in profit per visitor instead.
  - eunos 6y ago
    > But you will have to pay for a Quality Assurance guy to watch the robots I assume with modern sensors, IoT and analytics, it can be done at scale remotely. Instead of maintenance folks regularly inspect on-site, they will only visit when the analytic indicates it is time to fix/clean the machines.
  - contingencies 6y ago
    Average meal delivery prices in second tier cities approximate or exceed 20RMB per meal. After ingredients at least 15RMB or 75% of that is potential margin. Roughly, this demographic covers at least the higher earning ~60% of the Chinese population or 840M people if you can scale it. Now, according to various sources food delivery networks currently deliver USD$35B/year to 400M unique users in China. Replace that with robots and you are talking faster itch scratching, better personalization, higher reliability, more choice, higher cleanliness, 24H availability, smoother experience (no "where are you I am outside" phone calls). So, forget your $10,800/day figure. Think USD$35B/year = ~USD$100M/day, discounting any growth. Now grow that, value the market position and lock-in in addition to the cashflow, and you have an idea of the real opportunity... that's how we see it, anyway.
julianlam 6y ago
The Chinese really have efficiency down to an art form. The last time I was in HK, I had breakfast at Dai Ga Lok. I put in my order and by the time I ambled over to the next counter, my noodle soup and toast was already ready. It blew my mind just how fast they managed to put it out... and this was with an all-human staff! It was like that scene in The Founder where Ray Kroc eats at McDonalds the first time and he doesn't understand how he could possibly get his burger ready so quickly.
- spyckie2 6y ago
  You don't see behind the scenes, but the sacrifices of quality for speed are very apparent if you eat it all the time.
- onetimemanytime 6y ago
  >>my noodle soup and toast was already ready. This is easy, just a matter of plating. They probably have a very limited menu (serves 95% just fine) and the rest if just perfecting the system little by little
  - seanmcdirmid 6y ago
    The little chengdu xiaochis I went to in Beijing often had my food up before I was done paying, I would hear the propane stove hose on just shortly after I said my order....
    - onetimemanytime 6y ago
      at the risk of sounding like an idiot: are Chinese /HK workers more attentive to their job? We've seen the McDonalds and other fast food workers here...not that they get paid to work faster, let's be honest. Burgers and sandwiches should always be hot and ready to pack especially during peak times. Fries too. Others would replenish them as needed. Soda is what it is, so it should a matter of seconds if everyone worked like their livelihood depended on it. But they system is what it is: teenagers making believe they are working and employers making believe they are paying them. In the end, waiting just a few minutes is fast enough for the customer anyway, so no incentive to change the system.
kyriakos 6y ago
I am not sure sure how much these robots learned as the article claims based on the gifs they are specialised production like robots doing a single repetitive task each. Still impressive but not much different than a modern car factory.
forgotmyhnacc 6y ago
Does anyone know if there are videos of the robots in action? The GIFs are choppy and don't show enough
- eunos 6y ago
  https://youtu.be/YPoAjRxyBQQ https://youtu.be/YPoAjRxyBQQ
  - blackrock 6y ago
    That was pretty slick. Although those robots sure do look expensive. For now. But once you build out the software, the replication costs are minimal. And the robotic machinery will eventually get cheaper, when mass produced. This video was released just before the virus hit. So it’s perfect for our solitary and isolated post-pandemic world.
    - eunos 6y ago
      Not to mention that it seems that Chinese have higher trust with robots https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3033143/almost-90-cent-chinese-workers-trust-robot-more-their-human-managers https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3033143/almost-90... Whearas I assume in US, "human touch" is still preferable, e.g. Preferring human operator vs robovoice.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
_visgean 6y ago
It is interesting though I am not sure if it makes sense at all. Is a restaurant sector a significant vector for covid 19? I have not heard about people getting infected from food deliveries. Health agencies showing that food preparation ain't a vector: - https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/news/coronavirus-no-evidence-food-source-or-transmission-route https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/news/coronavirus-no-evidence-f... - https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/food-safety-and-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19 https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/food... (section A worker in my food processing facility/farm has tested positive for COVID-19.)
- maccard 6y ago
  Have you been in a working kitchen? I've only been in one (a couple of times) and it was the smallest, hottest, least ventilated place I've ever been. While it might not be a transmission vector for customers, it's _definiely_ a high risk enviroent for the staff. Particularly if they interact with wait staff who interact with customers.
  - _visgean 6y ago
    Yes I agree that it is a risk for for the staff, however it does not seem to be a risk for customers, which is what this concept would reduce.
    - boomboomsubban 6y ago
      If the staff is at risk, the customers risk depends on how closely they interact with the staff. So while replacing the cook with a robot may not reduce the risk, replacing the server with one will.
      - catalogia 6y ago
        There are cheaper ways to replace a server than with a robot. For instance, with a counter. You could make an air-locked counter built like a fume hood for a small fraction of what a single serving robot would cost.
aaron695 6y ago
I love the way it's pretty clear this won't work. It'll be full of people out the back, faking the experience and constantly repairing robots, for the diners to get the performance. A great practical robot for a restaurant is a dishwasher. These robots are straight from Disney.
jpalomaki 6y ago
Is this the way to turn services like Uber Eats profitable? Instead of small restaurants, you could have ala carte factories cranking dishes under different brands. At scale investment in automation makes more sense.
- wenc 6y ago
  If you mean online-only ghost kitchens, they sure do work (even without automation). They already exist today (I believe former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has a ghost kitchen venture). Right now, most ghost kitchens have one major shortcoming: they lack a compelling narrative. Restaurants don't just sell food -- they sell a story, a distinction. They sell a distinct style of ramen or pizza or pasta because the chef brings their culture and training to the product. Standard markup gets you margins, but a compelling story coupled with good execution adds a premium. In this regard, pure-play ghost kitchen food feels empty and generic. There's no story or flair behind it, just a factory production line. For the "food as fuel" demographic -- this doesn't matter. Food is food, pizza or pasta is the same anywhere. For people who believe "food is culture" -- this matters a lot. I'm not going to order pizza from a generic Grubhub place named "Sam's Pizza". One way around this is perhaps to have restaurants with pre-existing narratives to lend their name/brand and process to a ghost kitchen operation. The Filipino chicken chain Jollibees -- which has name recognition -- is trying this out, so we'll see.
  - yoshyosh 6y ago
    Honestly I think if the "robot" food is truly incredible and delicious, I don't buy that the story will matter much at all. That paired with high value relative to cost, likely leads to a world where only the edges survive, "fine dining" like experiences and cheap but good options. Agreed with the power of ghost kitchens leveraging brand, this is what sweetgreen does to help with their distribution
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
fxtentacle 6y ago
Am I the only one to find this level of competition scary for western countries? I always thought that robots and automation would be our hope to compete with the ultra-cheap labor in China. Like Apple moving production back to the US and making it profitable with a lot of automation. But if China now becomes a leader at robotics in addition to remaining competitive at manufacturing, then how are we going to compete?
- catalogia 6y ago
  > if China now becomes a leader at robotics How was this ever not going to be the case? Robotics will go wherever the manufacturing is. Where else would roboticists get practical real world experience, other than in factories? Obviously there's plenty of robotic manufacturing in America still, but there's clearly no shortage of opportunity in it for China either. The assumption that America would have the best robotics which would force manufacturing to come back to America seems rooted in little more than wishful thinking.
  - keenmaster 6y ago
    I don’t think people would have expected Boston Dynamics to emerge out of the U.S. as opposed to Japan, but they did, and it’s telling that they emerged out of a subregion with top rate American educational institutions. Ignore that they were bought out by SoftBank because I think America will consistently churn out top robotics and automation companies in the coming years. All it takes is for there to be a profit signal. Until a field has that profit signal, Americans outside of academia pretty much ignore it.
    - catalogia 6y ago
      Boston Dynamics doesn't seem like the sort of robotics that's particularly relevant to manufacturing. They've got impressive showy robots but don't know who to sell them to; the military seems ambivalent and now Boston Dynamics is trying to sell them as toys to rich people instead. It remains to be seen if they'll find a viable market like that. Industrial robotics on the other hand is a mature field, and much (most?) of it has been outside the US from the beginning. Yaskawa and FANUC in Japan. ABB in Switzerland. Siemens in Germany. How many factories have been automated by these companies? How many have been automated by Boston Dynamics?
DonHopkins 6y ago
Robots make terrible waiters! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXsUetUzXlg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXsUetUzXlg

60 points by rmason 6y ago

fortran77 6y ago

Robotic food preparation (at least for fast, simple meals) would be welcome in the post-Pandemic world.

catalogia 6y ago
There's little if any evidence to support fear of Corona transmission through food. You get corona by breathing it, not eating it. Restaurants have taken a hit because their dining areas are dangerous, not their kitchens (not to the consumer anyway, the employees are a hazard to each other.) I've been eating 7-11 hotdogs this entire time in a city that's been locked down for months; they never stopped food prep because there's really little reason to stop it. For that matter, our world has been "post-pandemic" for longer than recorded history. It's not even the first pandemic in the modern era.
- fortran77 6y ago
  > There's little if any evidence to support fear of Corona transmission through food. You're probably right, but there's perception. And that's very important for marketing. Pizza delivery companies are advertising their pizza as "untouched by human hand" from the time they emerge from the oven to the time they get to your door. > It's not even the first pandemic in the modern era. We have short attention spans. Not everyone is a history expert/pedant like you.
  - catalogia 6y ago
    If my intent was to be pedantic, I would have pointed out that we're not post-corona because it's still ongoing. My actual point, which I had hoped you would infer, was that people have short attentions spans. I see little reason to believe corona will have lasting profound social impact when previous pandemics in the modern era did not. Judging by road traffic, people are already beginning to return to their normal lives even though this pandemic still hasn't run it's course. I think in a few years it will be nearly forgotten, just like the other pandemics.
ben_w 6y ago
Huh. I kinda assumed they already were. (I’m imagining instant noodles, many baked goods, and sandwiches).

contingencies 6y ago

I am a foreigner running a rival food automation venture in Guangdong. I had resigned from HN participation but thought to rejoin and post thoughts as this is quite close to our area. The venture under discussion Qianxi Robot Catering Group (千玺机器人餐饮集团系) who are owned by real estate group Country Garden (碧桂园 / 02007.HK) who invested 2.4B RMB (USD$33.5M) in the company. It has four subsidiaries including Zhiyuan Technology (智源科技), Bijiashun Kitchen (碧家顺厨), Youbisheng (优碧胜) and Biyouwei (碧有味). Background is that the parent group sees the combination of robotics, agriculture and real estate as a growth area. It reportedly spent USD$87M on robotics research in the first half of 2019 and will spent "at least" 80B RMB or USD$11.2B on robotics research in the next 5 years. This includes another company in the group '博智林机器人' (Bright Dream Robotics). For the current robotics restaurant group, in January 2020 it reports that it will "refine its mass production plan and expand its stores nationwide in 2020." Includes welcome robots, frying robots, dessert robots, burger robots, bartending robots, claypot rice robots, wok robots, cloud track systems and ground delivery robots, etc. 32 wok based cooking robots and a claypot robot that can make 24 claypot meals at the same time. My own investors have visited this venture and reported that there were technical problems prohibiting its automatic operation. It seems condiments are supplied by the numerous staff, rather than automatically, and many specific robot interfaces are also handled by staff. For the wok robots, it is reported there are 32 dishes made by robots, and it appears that each wok only makes one (fixed program). Note that the packaging for drinks appears to be the largest and most expensive type of take-away cups available which are presumably selected in order to minimize precision, rigidity and consistency related issues with cheaper plastic lid pressure application processes. There is no evidence of self cleaning. The burger frying robot appears to have the following structure based on two Kuka standard light weight industrial robot arms. The left side focuses on parallel burger frying in sets of three. The right side combines the deep fried (fries, possibly 'fish cakes'). The process is as follows. A uniform shaped, pre-cut half-bun is grilled and then placed on a new sheet of packaging. Pre-chopped lettuce is added by extracting an apparently weight-measured portion from an apparently hidden rotary dispenser. A chicken burger is fried and then lifted by pneumatic suction. Apparently either the burger or the top of the bun can have sauce applied, or the algorithm has changed. The top is placed on the burger then it is packaged by a complicated folding mechanism. Finally the result is stuck together with a sticker then lifted and placed in the output queue. Esimate cost of burger system: 2 linear motion systems + 2 robot arms + custom aluminium + grippers + pneumatics + stock framing + heating systems + industrial control systems + air extraction system + frying system + deep frying system + sauce dispensers. Conclusion: expensive, likely over USD$40,000 in parts before labour and design. Our venture - Infinite Food - retain what we believe to be a global technology lead in the sector and look forward to launching our world first service supplying personalized food retail from a network of kiosk form factor automated restaurants. invest at 8-food dot com if interested.

Animats 6y ago

This makes sense at scale. The restaurant seats 600. Some form of assembly line is essential.

blackrock 6y ago
The economics of this might be interesting. Say they are only targeting to make $1 per meal. And they’re opened for 14 hours a day, 10 am to 12 am midnight. And say they’re always operating at full capacity. And each table has a 45 minute window between turnovers, so you eat your meal in 45 minutes. So you’ve got about 18 rotations throughout your day. And assume the 600 seats are always optimally filled. Then, 18 x $600 = $10,800/day Then, in a year, this could theoretically become: $3.94 million/year. You could always adjust your numbers, like if they target $2 in profit per meal, then this could theoretically be $7.9 million/year. Then, at these rates, the initial capital outlay for these robots, might just be worthwhile. Say, you spend $1 million for the robots and machinery, then, it would take 3 months to recover that cost. Of course, you also have to factor in other costs like the front workers, cleaners, security, and dish washers (unless they have a robot for that too). But at least you don’t have to pay for a cook anymore. But you will have to pay for a Quality Assurance guy to watch the robots. And most people prefer to eat during the lunch and dinner rush, so you won’t get to hit the full theoretical operating capacity, thus limiting your profits. But you can try to make more in profit per visitor instead.
- eunos 6y ago
  > But you will have to pay for a Quality Assurance guy to watch the robots I assume with modern sensors, IoT and analytics, it can be done at scale remotely. Instead of maintenance folks regularly inspect on-site, they will only visit when the analytic indicates it is time to fix/clean the machines.
- contingencies 6y ago
  Average meal delivery prices in second tier cities approximate or exceed 20RMB per meal. After ingredients at least 15RMB or 75% of that is potential margin. Roughly, this demographic covers at least the higher earning ~60% of the Chinese population or 840M people if you can scale it. Now, according to various sources food delivery networks currently deliver USD$35B/year to 400M unique users in China. Replace that with robots and you are talking faster itch scratching, better personalization, higher reliability, more choice, higher cleanliness, 24H availability, smoother experience (no "where are you I am outside" phone calls). So, forget your $10,800/day figure. Think USD$35B/year = ~USD$100M/day, discounting any growth. Now grow that, value the market position and lock-in in addition to the cashflow, and you have an idea of the real opportunity... that's how we see it, anyway.

julianlam 6y ago

The Chinese really have efficiency down to an art form. The last time I was in HK, I had breakfast at Dai Ga Lok. I put in my order and by the time I ambled over to the next counter, my noodle soup and toast was already ready. It blew my mind just how fast they managed to put it out... and this was with an all-human staff! It was like that scene in The Founder where Ray Kroc eats at McDonalds the first time and he doesn't understand how he could possibly get his burger ready so quickly.

spyckie2 6y ago
You don't see behind the scenes, but the sacrifices of quality for speed are very apparent if you eat it all the time.
onetimemanytime 6y ago
>>my noodle soup and toast was already ready. This is easy, just a matter of plating. They probably have a very limited menu (serves 95% just fine) and the rest if just perfecting the system little by little
- seanmcdirmid 6y ago
  The little chengdu xiaochis I went to in Beijing often had my food up before I was done paying, I would hear the propane stove hose on just shortly after I said my order....
  - onetimemanytime 6y ago
    at the risk of sounding like an idiot: are Chinese /HK workers more attentive to their job? We've seen the McDonalds and other fast food workers here...not that they get paid to work faster, let's be honest. Burgers and sandwiches should always be hot and ready to pack especially during peak times. Fries too. Others would replenish them as needed. Soda is what it is, so it should a matter of seconds if everyone worked like their livelihood depended on it. But they system is what it is: teenagers making believe they are working and employers making believe they are paying them. In the end, waiting just a few minutes is fast enough for the customer anyway, so no incentive to change the system.

kyriakos 6y ago

I am not sure sure how much these robots learned as the article claims based on the gifs they are specialised production like robots doing a single repetitive task each. Still impressive but not much different than a modern car factory.

forgotmyhnacc 6y ago

Does anyone know if there are videos of the robots in action? The GIFs are choppy and don't show enough

eunos 6y ago
https://youtu.be/YPoAjRxyBQQ https://youtu.be/YPoAjRxyBQQ
- blackrock 6y ago
  That was pretty slick. Although those robots sure do look expensive. For now. But once you build out the software, the replication costs are minimal. And the robotic machinery will eventually get cheaper, when mass produced. This video was released just before the virus hit. So it’s perfect for our solitary and isolated post-pandemic world.
  - eunos 6y ago
    Not to mention that it seems that Chinese have higher trust with robots https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3033143/almost-90-cent-chinese-workers-trust-robot-more-their-human-managers https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3033143/almost-90... Whearas I assume in US, "human touch" is still preferable, e.g. Preferring human operator vs robovoice.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

_visgean 6y ago

It is interesting though I am not sure if it makes sense at all. Is a restaurant sector a significant vector for covid 19? I have not heard about people getting infected from food deliveries. Health agencies showing that food preparation ain't a vector: - https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/news/coronavirus-no-evidence-food-source-or-transmission-route https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/news/coronavirus-no-evidence-f... - https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/food-safety-and-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19 https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/food... (section A worker in my food processing facility/farm has tested positive for COVID-19.)

maccard 6y ago
Have you been in a working kitchen? I've only been in one (a couple of times) and it was the smallest, hottest, least ventilated place I've ever been. While it might not be a transmission vector for customers, it's _definiely_ a high risk enviroent for the staff. Particularly if they interact with wait staff who interact with customers.
- _visgean 6y ago
  Yes I agree that it is a risk for for the staff, however it does not seem to be a risk for customers, which is what this concept would reduce.
  - boomboomsubban 6y ago
    If the staff is at risk, the customers risk depends on how closely they interact with the staff. So while replacing the cook with a robot may not reduce the risk, replacing the server with one will.
    - catalogia 6y ago
      There are cheaper ways to replace a server than with a robot. For instance, with a counter. You could make an air-locked counter built like a fume hood for a small fraction of what a single serving robot would cost.

aaron695 6y ago

I love the way it's pretty clear this won't work. It'll be full of people out the back, faking the experience and constantly repairing robots, for the diners to get the performance. A great practical robot for a restaurant is a dishwasher. These robots are straight from Disney.

jpalomaki 6y ago

Is this the way to turn services like Uber Eats profitable? Instead of small restaurants, you could have ala carte factories cranking dishes under different brands. At scale investment in automation makes more sense.

wenc 6y ago
If you mean online-only ghost kitchens, they sure do work (even without automation). They already exist today (I believe former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has a ghost kitchen venture). Right now, most ghost kitchens have one major shortcoming: they lack a compelling narrative. Restaurants don't just sell food -- they sell a story, a distinction. They sell a distinct style of ramen or pizza or pasta because the chef brings their culture and training to the product. Standard markup gets you margins, but a compelling story coupled with good execution adds a premium. In this regard, pure-play ghost kitchen food feels empty and generic. There's no story or flair behind it, just a factory production line. For the "food as fuel" demographic -- this doesn't matter. Food is food, pizza or pasta is the same anywhere. For people who believe "food is culture" -- this matters a lot. I'm not going to order pizza from a generic Grubhub place named "Sam's Pizza". One way around this is perhaps to have restaurants with pre-existing narratives to lend their name/brand and process to a ghost kitchen operation. The Filipino chicken chain Jollibees -- which has name recognition -- is trying this out, so we'll see.
- yoshyosh 6y ago
  Honestly I think if the "robot" food is truly incredible and delicious, I don't buy that the story will matter much at all. That paired with high value relative to cost, likely leads to a world where only the edges survive, "fine dining" like experiences and cheap but good options. Agreed with the power of ghost kitchens leveraging brand, this is what sweetgreen does to help with their distribution
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

fxtentacle 6y ago

Am I the only one to find this level of competition scary for western countries? I always thought that robots and automation would be our hope to compete with the ultra-cheap labor in China. Like Apple moving production back to the US and making it profitable with a lot of automation. But if China now becomes a leader at robotics in addition to remaining competitive at manufacturing, then how are we going to compete?

catalogia 6y ago
> if China now becomes a leader at robotics How was this ever not going to be the case? Robotics will go wherever the manufacturing is. Where else would roboticists get practical real world experience, other than in factories? Obviously there's plenty of robotic manufacturing in America still, but there's clearly no shortage of opportunity in it for China either. The assumption that America would have the best robotics which would force manufacturing to come back to America seems rooted in little more than wishful thinking.
- keenmaster 6y ago
  I don’t think people would have expected Boston Dynamics to emerge out of the U.S. as opposed to Japan, but they did, and it’s telling that they emerged out of a subregion with top rate American educational institutions. Ignore that they were bought out by SoftBank because I think America will consistently churn out top robotics and automation companies in the coming years. All it takes is for there to be a profit signal. Until a field has that profit signal, Americans outside of academia pretty much ignore it.
  - catalogia 6y ago
    Boston Dynamics doesn't seem like the sort of robotics that's particularly relevant to manufacturing. They've got impressive showy robots but don't know who to sell them to; the military seems ambivalent and now Boston Dynamics is trying to sell them as toys to rich people instead. It remains to be seen if they'll find a viable market like that. Industrial robotics on the other hand is a mature field, and much (most?) of it has been outside the US from the beginning. Yaskawa and FANUC in Japan. ABB in Switzerland. Siemens in Germany. How many factories have been automated by these companies? How many have been automated by Boston Dynamics?

DonHopkins 6y ago

Robots make terrible waiters! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXsUetUzXlg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXsUetUzXlg