Whether You Like It or Not, Food-Bots Are on the Rise Gail Barnes - SnapMunk
go to original July 10, 2017

How Food-Bots Are Changing How We Eat | Robots & Us (WIRED)

According to a June 12 SEC filing, secretive San Francisco-based startup Momentum Machines has secured $18.39 million in a new round of venture funding, adding to previous investments from VC firms including Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures. Made up of “foodies and engineers with decades of robotics experience,” the startup focusses on replacing humans with food robots in the kitchens of fast-food restaurants – with the aim of producing gourmet quality food that can be sold at fast food prices.

In 2012, Momentum Machines debuted a robot that could make nearly 400 custom hamburgers in an hour, in a fully autonomous process. From slicing and dicing the toppings, to grilling the patties, and assembling and bagging the resulting burgers, the orders would travel from kitchen to customer untouched by human hands.

“Our device isn’t meant to make employees more efficient,” the company’s co-founder, Alexandros Vardakostas, told a business publication at the time, “It’s meant to completely obviate them.” The company did add that letting robots fill in for humans in the kitchen may actually promote job growth – at least at Momentum – because the automation would allow the company to hire new employees to continue developing their technology, and to staff additional restaurant locations.

A job posting last year described what consumers may expect in the first Momentum Machines’ restaurant, and also divulged the location of a possible first location, saying, “The burgers sold at 680 Folsom will be fresh-ground and grilled to order, served on toasted brioche, and accented by an infinitely personalizable variety of fresh produce, seasonings, and sauces.”

Future menus or locations could offer more than just burgers. “Our various technologies can produce an ever-growing list of common choices like salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, and many other multi-ingredient foods with a gourmet focus,” the company’s website says.

... Momentum Machines’ technology may eliminate the need for traditional kitchen staff, but front-of-house and custodial or maintenance staff will still be required for cleaning and keeping the equipment sanitary and functioning as it should.

Read the rest at SnapMunk

Related: Artificial Intelligence and the Robot Apocalypse: Why We Need New Rules to Keep Humans Safe (The Conversation)

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