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.
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.
“Skynet is now active...”
We now call it The Cloud.
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.
Good one.
$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???
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!
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?
“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!
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.
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.
#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.
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.
Great!
This means LOWER PRICES with all the savings these mega companies save in labor.
Boom like that.
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.
$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.
Kroc Style!
Don’t forget, the price tag is a 1 time fixed amount.
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
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.
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