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Burger Robot to Replace Fast Food Workers With a Wage of $3 an Hour
The Mind Unleashed ^ | February 29, 2020 | Aaron Keisl

Posted on 03/01/2020 7:50:52 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin

If your job is working at a restaurant flipping burgers you may soon find yourself replaced by a robot that works for only $3 an hour.

The new robot named Flippy developed by Miso Robotics costs less to employ than a minimum-wage worker. Currently, Miso Robotics charges an up-front fee of between $20,000 and $30,000 to install Flippy into restaurants.

The LA Times reports:

“As a result, Miso can offer Flippys to fast-food restaurant owners for an estimated $2,000 per month on a subscription basis, breaking down to about $3 per hour. (The actual cost will depend on customers’ specific needs). A human doing the same job costs $4,000 to $10,000 or more a month, depending on a restaurant’s hours and the local minimum wage. And robots never call in sick.“

According to Digital Trends, Flippy is a “burger-flipping robot arm that’s equipped with both thermal and regular vision, which grills burgers to order while also advising human collaborators in the kitchen when they need to add cheese or prep buns for serving.”

When Miso Robotics set out to create their first units, off-the-shelf robotic arms sold for upwards of $100,000. Today, they’re going for about $10,000 and are only getting cheaper, according to the LA Times. Get the latest from The Mind Unleashed in your inbox. Sign up right here.

In 2017, international chain CaliBurger was the first to install Flippy, which can flip 150 burgers an hour.

Flippy isn’t the first robot to take over the kitchen and it won’t be the last. It turns out Taco Bell was the first to use a robot in the kitchen with their “Automatic Taco Machine”—a long-forgotten relic from almost 30 years ago, because it failed due to too many problems. However, Taco Bell has given up on automation and is looking elsewhere in the form of self-ordering kiosks, which it had planned to install at all its 6,000+ locations across the United States by the end of 2019, according to Business Insider.

Last year international fast-food chain McDonald’s reported they would begin employing automated fryer robots throughout their different branches across the world. Former McDonald’s USA CEO Ed Rensi told Fox Business, “It’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries.” McDonald’s has also introduced touchscreen ordering kiosks to some of its stores.

Restaurant chains that are using automation include McDonalds, KFC, Panera, Wendys, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Arbys according to Business Insider.

Meanwhile, in China e-commerce giant Alibaba has a chain of automated grocery stores with attached diners staffed by robot waiters that take your order. Real estate giant Country Garden Holdings recently opened its first fully robotic restaurant in Guangzhou, China where computers and robots handle ordering, food prep, serving, and even the cleaning of tables.

Robots aren’t just taking over restaurants, a report by the McKinsey Global Institute indicates there are 800 million careers (or 30 percent of the global job force)—from doctors to accountants, lawyers to journalists—that will be lost to automation by 2030. The report concludes that hundreds of millions of people worldwide will have to find new jobs or learn new skills.

A report by the University of Oxford suggests we will soon face a robot job apocalypse predicting that 47 percent of U.S. jobs are at risk of being replaced by robots and Artificial Intelligence over the next fifteen to twenty years.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; Food
KEYWORDS: burger; burgers; fastfood; fightfor15; hamburger; hamburgers; minimumwage
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To: Tallguy

The other issue is that if the devices fail the restaurant no longer has trained employees and is stuck with needing a tech solution. We customers get poor service in that case and the business fails.


61 posted on 03/01/2020 10:18:45 AM PST by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
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To: VTenigma

“Skynet is now active...”

We now call it The Cloud.


62 posted on 03/01/2020 10:24:07 AM PST by polymuser (It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and so few by deceit. Noel Coward)
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To: caww

I would think the metal mesh belt thru the cooker would be better, with patties fed by (over ten patty) magazines, cheese slices applied from the cheese magazine, cooled patty fed onto the bottom bun, toppings applied buy nozzles and onion & lettuce magazines, the top bun applied, then completed burger fed into rotary carousel for hand-finishing & packing.


63 posted on 03/01/2020 10:33:48 AM PST by polymuser (It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and so few by deceit. Noel Coward)
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To: redshawk

Good one.


64 posted on 03/01/2020 10:44:34 AM PST by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

$2000 a month costing $3 an hour:

That works out to 666.66 HOURS a month-—

Divided by 4.333 == 155 hours a week...

equals 22 hours a day...

I wonder when the labor laws will kick in here???


65 posted on 03/01/2020 11:12:27 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

OK, marxists, you can raise the minimum hourly rate as much as you want. It applies only to humans, at this time. But watch out! some people are already talking about giving rights to robots!


66 posted on 03/01/2020 11:13:37 AM PST by I want the USA back (We have sunk to a depth where restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men:Orwell)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

BYW- Tests have shown that those ‘kiosk order boards’ at McDonalds have more germs on them than your normal household toilet.

Masks are already in short suppply —

Will rubber gloves be next?


67 posted on 03/01/2020 11:14:48 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: UnwashedPeasant

“Bonus: Robots do not forget to wash their hands after a toilet break and do not spread hepatitis to the customers.”

True.

But neither can you go on a date with the hot new Flippy, and maybe get some “Lovin” in the back room at closing time!


68 posted on 03/01/2020 11:17:19 AM PST by Macoozie (Handcuffs and Orange Jumpsuits)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Target started paying $13/hr which the employees were very happy about.
The next thing Target did was cut back the hours to under 29 for many.
In short the employees got it in the shorts thanks to the democrats.

We should replace many of the congressman with robots.
The democrats are programmed already to hate America.
The congressrobots could be reprogrammed to love America.


69 posted on 03/01/2020 12:18:01 PM PST by minnesota_bound (homeless guy. He just has more money....He the master will plant more cotton for the democrat party)
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To: EC Washington

You are correct. That will also create demand for those who can troubleshoot and repair these robots. Those in the business who can do so will be the last to be replaced.


70 posted on 03/01/2020 12:28:14 PM PST by RetiredScientist
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To: Artemis Webb

#3 El Pollo Loco chicken twice in a row got my sides wrong.
I ask for mash potatoes and get beans or macaroni.
Other times I get thighs instead of the breasts and wing I order etc.

Burger King. I ask for no ketchup or mustard on the hamburger but sometimes I think I want even more.

How can you mix that up? At the prices the joints are charging now they should get it right.


71 posted on 03/01/2020 12:39:33 PM PST by minnesota_bound (homeless guy. He just has more money....He the master will plant more cotton for the democrat party)
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To: cloudmountain

And the point was that fast food jobs, save the managers’ spot, were not meant to be long term adult-held jobs.

I had my time in a fast food place in high school. And i didn’t enjoy it and withing theee months found a far better job for the rest of high school.


72 posted on 03/01/2020 12:41:22 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Great!

This means LOWER PRICES with all the savings these mega companies save in labor.


73 posted on 03/01/2020 12:45:52 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Boom like that.


74 posted on 03/01/2020 12:55:17 PM PST by DownInFlames (Galsd)
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To: Tallguy
You’d think that would be the case. But it’s not a very mentally engaging job and that doesn’t change because they throw you a extra buck or 2 per hour. Then you have to consider how much more you have to charge for “fast food” when your labor price structure goes up.

All true. Things won't change as long as people buy their food. The food is great...salt, sugar and fat, all the things that make food TASTE and taste GOOD.

No broccoli, spinach, collard greens, kale, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, bok choi, etc., at the fast food places.
Those places are open to MAKE MONEY and they know the food they need to produce.

75 posted on 03/01/2020 12:55:59 PM PST by cloudmountain
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To: freedumb2003

$15/hr x 2080 = $31,200 + $1,778.40 (employer portion of ss tax) = $32,978.40

Mr flippy pays for itself in 10 months regarding the initial payout.


76 posted on 03/01/2020 1:03:31 PM PST by DownInFlames (Galsd)
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To: DownInFlames

Kroc Style!


77 posted on 03/01/2020 1:05:02 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Cats1

Don’t forget, the price tag is a 1 time fixed amount.


78 posted on 03/01/2020 1:05:24 PM PST by DownInFlames (Galsd)
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To: zaxtres
A 3.00 USD job will get him/her 58 mexican pesos per hour. With an average between 8000 to 12000 Mexican pesos for the average income in Mexico, a worker in the US would only need to make 611 dollars on the high end and a little over 400 USD on the low end to equal what they make in Mexico. So a 3.00 job working 40 a week would put them into that range of the average monthly salary in Mexico. Suddenly for an illegal foreign worker having the mindset of making between 400 and 600 US dollars is not all that bad.

Maybe that worker has to produce a lot more $$ because he is supporting more than himself. Maybe his family in Mexico is, er, large.

I don't believe that so many UNATTACHED males or females come here. Why would they? It's not HOME. And I don't think they have the starry-eyed mentality of the first immigrants. They are here for ONE reason: DINERO.

It all seems to depend on and goes back to the USA and China.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-economy-peso/mexico-peso-headed-for-choppy-waters-on-back-of-trade-uncertainty-idUSKBN1X12A3

79 posted on 03/01/2020 1:08:47 PM PST by cloudmountain
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To: Secret Agent Man
And the point was that fast food jobs, save the managers’ spot, were not meant to be long term adult-held jobs.
WHAT are you trying to say? It doesn't make much sense.

I had my time in a fast food place in high school. And i didn’t enjoy it and withing theee months found a far better job for the rest of high school.
THIS I understand completely, even the "theee" months.

80 posted on 03/01/2020 1:12:44 PM PST by cloudmountain
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