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"Robotic restaurant that serves healthy fast food": this is exactly how Eatsa used to pitch itself (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/upshot/restaurant-of-the-

"Robotic restaurant that serves healthy fast food": this is exactly how Eatsa used to pitch itself (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/upshot/restaurant-of-the-future-service-with-an-impersonal-touch.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/upshot/restaurant-of-the-...) Turned out things didn't work out too well for Eatsa, but I think it was more due to errors in execution (hyper fast growth with nation-wide expansion, and lots of time and money spent on developing custom hardware) rather than a lack of product/market fit. Best of luck to Mezli! (Disclosure: former Eatsa employee)

Mountain_Skies 6y ago
Sounds like they followed the WebVan business model.
kolchinski 6y ago
We've taken a lot of inspiration from Eatsa, actually! We've chatted with probably of half-dozen ex-Eatsa folks. I'll shoot you a note if you're up for a conversation.
Animats 6y ago
Eatsa was strange. It wasn't really automated. It was more like Amazon lockers for fast food. There was a conventional kitchen in back, but order taking and scheduling was automated. McDonalds announced a big automation push years in 2019. Again, not robotic kitchen automation. Automating order taking and supervision.[1] A previous try at that was called "Hyperactive Bob".[2] That's like Amazon's warehouse automation system with Kiva robots.[3] Or the Chicago Dryer "Cascade" system for folding linens. These things use computers to tell the people what to do, because unskilled human hands are cheaper than robots. The human part is reduced to simple eye-hand coordination tasks, which robots still can't do very well. "Machines should think. People should work" automation. [1] https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/mcdonalds-plans-for-greater-restaurant-automation-with-third-acquisition-this-year/ https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/mcdonalds-plans-... [2] https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040908/0156256.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040908/0156256.shtml [3] https://youtu.be/CWNuaPE4DTc https://youtu.be/CWNuaPE4DTc [4] https://youtu.be/k-DSd2o-mP8 https://youtu.be/k-DSd2o-mP8
- Clewza313 6y ago
  > "Machines should think. People should work" automation. Obligatory dystopian short story on this theme: https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1
  - bckr 6y ago
    This is one of my first science fiction favorites.
  - sterlind 6y ago
    Thank you! I've tried to google several times for this story but never found it again until now.
- joezydeco 6y ago
  Again, not robotic kitchen automation. Oh, it's in process. I consulted on a early prototype of a new automation project for them and that was 3 years ago. McD just refines and tests the hell out of things for years with their vendors before they launch it. I worked in a McD kitchen 30 years ago as a teenager. The ironic thing is that the amount of people needed to run a kitchen has stayed essentially the same. Most run with 2-3 people during an average period. It's just that over those years McD has already automated a huge portion of the grunt work in the kitchen, the rest is just tending to the machines and final assembly + customization, which no robot will get right for another decade or two. Humans are more versatile, easier to train, quickly replaceable when one goes offline, and keep a much cleaner workstation. The robots do the JIT work on everything else.
  - JohnHaugeland 6y ago
    > Humans are more versatile, easier to train, quickly replaceable when one goes offline, and keep a much cleaner workstation. This is a biassed viewpoint. The problem is that humans do dozens of tasks. When we take one of them and give it to a machine, we view that as a new tool, and we imagine the human hasn't had its work reduced, because 19/20 of the things they were doing last month they still are. Fry machines are now automatic. So are cash registers. Many locations' burgers are auto-flipped. Those ice cream machines automate 5 different human jobs. Lots of orders are taken on machine now. Etc, etc, etc. . > Humans are more versatile, easier to train, quickly replaceable when one goes offline, and keep a much cleaner workstation. No they don't. If you made your own ice cream, you'd understand. It's just that when a machine takes over one specific job, we stop thinking of that as having been a human job, and let the human messes go out of our heads. There was a time when fast food restaurants sliced their own cheese; ground their own beef; cut and cooked their own french fries; mixed their own sodas. You don't live long enough to understand the progress of piecemeal automation.
mushbino 6y ago
I used to grab Eatsa every day for lunch. It was really the only customizable, healthy, affordable, and fast lunch options around. It was packed all the time too. I was super bummed and surprised to learn they shut down. There's definitely a market for this.
an_opabinia 6y ago
Actually I think these guys sound more like Bowlton.

Mountain_Skies 6y ago

Sounds like they followed the WebVan business model.

kolchinski 6y ago

We've taken a lot of inspiration from Eatsa, actually! We've chatted with probably of half-dozen ex-Eatsa folks. I'll shoot you a note if you're up for a conversation.

Animats 6y ago

Eatsa was strange. It wasn't really automated. It was more like Amazon lockers for fast food. There was a conventional kitchen in back, but order taking and scheduling was automated. McDonalds announced a big automation push years in 2019. Again, not robotic kitchen automation. Automating order taking and supervision.[1] A previous try at that was called "Hyperactive Bob".[2] That's like Amazon's warehouse automation system with Kiva robots.[3] Or the Chicago Dryer "Cascade" system for folding linens. These things use computers to tell the people what to do, because unskilled human hands are cheaper than robots. The human part is reduced to simple eye-hand coordination tasks, which robots still can't do very well. "Machines should think. People should work" automation. [1] https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/mcdonalds-plans-for-greater-restaurant-automation-with-third-acquisition-this-year/ https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/mcdonalds-plans-... [2] https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040908/0156256.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040908/0156256.shtml [3] https://youtu.be/CWNuaPE4DTc https://youtu.be/CWNuaPE4DTc [4] https://youtu.be/k-DSd2o-mP8 https://youtu.be/k-DSd2o-mP8

Clewza313 6y ago
> "Machines should think. People should work" automation. Obligatory dystopian short story on this theme: https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1
- bckr 6y ago
  This is one of my first science fiction favorites.
- sterlind 6y ago
  Thank you! I've tried to google several times for this story but never found it again until now.
joezydeco 6y ago
Again, not robotic kitchen automation. Oh, it's in process. I consulted on a early prototype of a new automation project for them and that was 3 years ago. McD just refines and tests the hell out of things for years with their vendors before they launch it. I worked in a McD kitchen 30 years ago as a teenager. The ironic thing is that the amount of people needed to run a kitchen has stayed essentially the same. Most run with 2-3 people during an average period. It's just that over those years McD has already automated a huge portion of the grunt work in the kitchen, the rest is just tending to the machines and final assembly + customization, which no robot will get right for another decade or two. Humans are more versatile, easier to train, quickly replaceable when one goes offline, and keep a much cleaner workstation. The robots do the JIT work on everything else.
- JohnHaugeland 6y ago
  > Humans are more versatile, easier to train, quickly replaceable when one goes offline, and keep a much cleaner workstation. This is a biassed viewpoint. The problem is that humans do dozens of tasks. When we take one of them and give it to a machine, we view that as a new tool, and we imagine the human hasn't had its work reduced, because 19/20 of the things they were doing last month they still are. Fry machines are now automatic. So are cash registers. Many locations' burgers are auto-flipped. Those ice cream machines automate 5 different human jobs. Lots of orders are taken on machine now. Etc, etc, etc. . > Humans are more versatile, easier to train, quickly replaceable when one goes offline, and keep a much cleaner workstation. No they don't. If you made your own ice cream, you'd understand. It's just that when a machine takes over one specific job, we stop thinking of that as having been a human job, and let the human messes go out of our heads. There was a time when fast food restaurants sliced their own cheese; ground their own beef; cut and cooked their own french fries; mixed their own sodas. You don't live long enough to understand the progress of piecemeal automation.

mushbino 6y ago

I used to grab Eatsa every day for lunch. It was really the only customizable, healthy, affordable, and fast lunch options around. It was packed all the time too. I was super bummed and surprised to learn they shut down. There's definitely a market for this.

an_opabinia 6y ago

Actually I think these guys sound more like Bowlton.