This is a little gimmicky, but restaurant automation is fascinating -- payroll is still a massive expense for most restaurant. For fine dining, forget it. But f

This is a little gimmicky, but restaurant automation is fascinating -- payroll is still a massive expense for most restaurant. For fine dining, forget it. But for fast food I'm surprised more hasn't been done in this space. I know there have been a few attempts here and there, but the closest thing at scale is some of the crazy vending machines in japan. Fast food already seems so systematic that I'm kind of surprised that automation hasn't made much progress. It seems like automation costs are the prohibitive factor, but I just don't understand why. I feel like a concept with these constraints could work: a) vending machine with minimal real estate / high traffic b) a very limited menu where the food has been chosen based on ease of automation c) only uses products from sysco You still have upfront engineering costs, but assuming you can get food quality above McD's you'll be fine. I also wonder how much chefs have collaborated with engineers in previous attempts. For instance, if McDonalds built a machine it would HAVE to make a BigMac -- now you've already introduced bad constraints. It's also likely that the natural innovator, manufacturers of food service machinery, have strong financial incentives NOT to innovate. I'm mostly full of crap, but it is interesting. :)