Economy Pizza company and Coffee shop that used robots to prepare / serve are closing down

Silicon Valley Pizza company "Zume Pizza" is closing down its Pizza shops, with a loss of 172 jobs in Mountain View Ca, and another 80 jobs in San Francisco.

According to the article Zume Pizza used robots to make pizza. The company has been doing this since 2016. They are now going to focus on packaging and delivery .

The accompanying picture only shows a robot loading the unbaked pizza but article says robots made the pizza.


A coffee shop in San Francisco closed 3 of its shops ; this shop used robots instead of baristas to prepare and serve coffee.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/robots-automated-businesses-close-bay-213931574.html
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When people go into a coffee shop, especially a niche brand or mom-n-pop store, they want human interaction. Part of the reason for getting the coffee is the atmosphere and expereince of the coffee shop vibe. When you have robots, there is no vibe, it is all very cold. Coffee shops are a bit like bars , in the sense that it isn't just about injesting the product.

Now there are ofcourse folks who just want to grab a cup-of-joe on their way to school or work or at the airport, In these situations a robot is not a detraction.

 

If a robot ever takes my job I’ll kill his whole robot family

 

I never understood going and getting coffee, treating it as a social meet. Id say i can do 3...maybe 4 coffees before im getting jittery and have atomic diarrhea. Plus, you gotta drink em fast otherwise they get cold...so, what the fuck?

 

In the 90s when I used to go into coffee shops, it was coffee and a snack . You just sat down and chilled for awhile, chatted with friends and just chilled. These were small coffee shops, where the mood was very relaxed. I've never had an issue with coffee going cold too fast.

 

Get them early
Abort them in the foundry.

 

Im thinking of the coffee going cold normally. Theres scorching hot when you gotta wait, then still hot, but can sip, warm hot where the sips can be gulps, the perfect temp, then cool.

It takes minutes.

 

Just an observation here without any particular political angle - both of these business apparently attempted to used robotics as a positive feature or hook for customers rather than for the sake of efficiency. A more efficient (and economical) pizza making robot wouldn’t be a six axis arm - which looks vaguely anthropomorphic and is, presumably, interesting to customers - but would resemble a boring assembly line with automated stations. One of the most successful fully robotic (and boring looking) businesses is Red Box dvd vending machines.

 

Weird, I am not looking for company when I get my coffee. I just want to be left the fuck alone in a corner.

 

Good idea wrong business


Robot sex dolls, not robot baristas

 

Humans are social herd animals. Even with automation and the increasing disconnect of the online and mobile life there is a finite limit on how much interpersonal isolation most individuals are willing to acclimate to.

Most people don't even consciously understand how much something simple like the interaction experienced in a customer service scenario fulfills that psychological need to engage with another human.

 

In the retail shop atmosphere, an articulated arm / pick-n-place robot , is by far the cheapest option. In a manufacturing atmosphere you have custom tailored automated solutions which are invariably very very costly . These articulating robot arms are off the shelf, and just require a competent programmer and custom fixturing to handle the food . It is a cheap and easy solution relative to customized automation.

 

These will be replaced by touch screen kiosk so you won’t even have to interact with an actual person. Progress

 

I saw a pizza vending machine on How It's Made one time. Frozen pre-made crusts, bags of sauce and cheese, all put together and cooked right inside the vending machine.

I guess it depends on the market, that shit would not fly in the Philly/NYC area.

 

I can only imagine the pretentiousness of these places.

 

Next great business idea:
Robot psychiatrist and Doctor (general practioner )

 

In a College dorm building or college break area , that would work. Cause students want cheap fast food.

 

A competent programmer isn't needed at the end-user point. Development of the code could be handled by the manufacturer and just have the end-user input the data into an interface to control the arm or whatever and perform a few dry runs.

My 10-year-old did the same thing with an arm built out of K'Nex, it picked up a can of soda and poured it into a glass.

 

Did the robots get tips?

 

I mean the end-user buys the articulating arm robot (used or new) from a local distributor and then a programmer / systems integrator sets it all up for the specific tasks , a service provided by the distributor of Robotic solutions or a 3rd party.

On the used market these industrial articulating arm robots can be had for a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, and there are lots of hobbyists out there who do their own programming. But in a retail setting like a coffee shop, you would want to employ the services of a professional. If you start your own garage shop making widgets, then you can buy a used unit and do the programming yourself.