Flippy, a burger-flipping robot, has begun work at a restaurant in Pasadena, Los Angeles. It is the first of dozens of locations for the system, which is destined to replace human fast-food workers.
Flippy is being installed in 50 locations.
Each flippy costs $60,000 and costs $12,000 a year to operate. One Flippy can cook 12 burgers. A worker making $15 an hour, 40 hours a week, working 50 weeks a year would cost $31,200 plus benefits (assuming 2 weeks paid vacation).
But Flippy can work two shifts and it never gets sick. For it to be employed in 50 locations, someone must think Flippy is worth it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW1mQtJaypU
There is another video in the first link.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
@Realist, if the proverbial $#!+ ever hits the fan, i image the ones who can live off the land (some may call those backwaters) may be the fittest.
@whirlaway, don’t blame mish or the banksters. the essence of technology has been: what can be automated, will be.
Long BOTZ
Cute, but the wrong way to automate burger production. Any serious effort to automate burgers will look like a miniature manufacturing line.
Another plus is robots don’t steal.
I wonder what’s done at the white castle factory. I doubt they have a burger flipper arm. More likely a conveyor belt system.
You can bet there will be a Trump 2.0 at some point of time that will direct people’s anger towards automation and robots. Mish and his bankster friends think that they can automate everything, rake it in and laugh all the way to the bank but they are sorely mistaken.
I saw this demonstrated on the news. You still need a worker to place the patties on the grill, add various toppings and make the burger. All this thing does is flip the burgers once. And someone has to clean and maintain the robot. While there is perhaps better quality control with the cooking of the burger, I’m skeptical that the payback analysis presented is that compelling. But its a great marketing story for the burger joint!
I hate that this site does not let you post a reply under the post you are replying to.
klausmkl said: “those burgers were paper thin, like in n out. I will make my own” . In n Out happens to be the most popular and highly rated fast food burgers in CA. And, my own favorite. But hey, there’s no accounting for taste, right?
Pure Hollywood. Cooking hamburgers for fast food outlets has been automatic for about 20 years. Assembling burgers is still a human chore. The fully automatic kitchen where you just add raw food at one end and pull plates of gourmet fair from the other is still a few years away. The article nevertheless demonstrates the inevitable displacement of menial human employment. What we really need however is some basic AI to replace the cretins within the western world’s corrupt oligarchical human governments, algorithms immune to self-interest, with no moving parts or hormone driven limbic system.
I agree. I have had it with these so-called experts. Most of them have an agenda they are pushing.
In fifty to a hundred years all human work will be automated. Thus, it’s imperative we prepared accordingly.
They both kill people.
We boycott the NRA for shooters, why not boycott bots?
Well now. Let’s just have a little boycott of this place. Maybe get some Hollywood stars and Oprah to join in.
Who are these so called experts?
And he doesn’t want to join a union or want health care benefits. LoL
If your conclusion makes no sense, check your premise.
Why make it use the human cooking method? Why not have a simple machine that is like a pizza oven – the burger moves along on a belt and is cooked on both sides simultaneously then falls into a pre-prepared bun at the end with the custom toppings required. This seems like the most difficult way to automate burger flipping.
SpongeBob is going about his usual day at work at the Krusty Krab. All of a sudden, his employer, Mr. Krabs, fires him from his job as a fry cook. According to Mr. Krabs, he can save a nickel if he cuts SpongeBob’s salary completely. SpongeBob offers to work for free, which Mr. Krabs says he considered but learned it would be illegal and that he could lose his vending license. Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob’s apathetic co-worker, asks if he can be fired as well, but Mr. Krabs refuses because Squidward has more seniority. SpongeBob cries in depression all the way home. Squidward, although gleeful over SpongeBob not working at the Krusty Krab anymore, asks Mr. Krabs who will be the new fry cook. His boss informs him that, to save money, he will take over the kitchen, much to Squidward’s dismay.
link to s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com
….AND it gets a lot better at what it does
“IOW, vast improvements in productivity, which used to be the stuff of wealth creation and improved living standards.”
Yes, used to be. Not anymore.
link to heritage.org
What happens when that $60k price tag comes down to $5k and it doesn’t need parts for 10 yrs????
Whirlaway, a similar argument was made when we launched the first automated tape cartridge library system for mainframes in 1991. The results are in: Drastic reduction in the cost of computer storage, vast improvements in reliability and response times, billions in revenue, thousands of jobs…so far.
And other than rubbing your hands in glee at the number of people who are going to lose jobs and the number of people already in poverty who will be driven further into it, what do you have to offer, really????
As the word gets around, expect local burger joint owners to begin lobbying for tariff protection…
They look quite a bit like Steak & Shake Burgers – also very thin
If they were square, they would look like Wendy’s
those burgers were paper thin, like in n out. I will make my own
No more undercooked or burnt burgers? No more patties picked up off the floor? Dang!