This was a thing in the US back in the 20s (and a bit before): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat Plus ça change, plus

This was a thing in the US back in the 20s (and a bit before): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose