Comment by Jtarii
1 day ago
Okay so you go to a restaurant, who takes your order? The robot? Does it have a touchscreen like in mcdonalds were everyone has to spend 2 minutes awkwardly mashing the screen. Then the robot brings you the plates, then you have to put your own plates on the table, then how do you signal that you are ready to pay? Does every table have a button that you press to summon the robot again? Then you have to put your plates back on the robot?
Who the fuck would go to a restaurant like this.
There are already sushi restaurants like this and have been for years. You tap the items you want on an ipad that stays with the table. A robot with an LCD cat-face comes out with trays of your food and stops in front of your table. It's a novelty, big whoop. Before this, they still had the ipads for orders and the staff just delivered the food/drink.
It's not like you need a touch screen anymore though, chatbots are good enough you should be able to read off your order from a paper menu just like at a normal restaurant. Proper tooling is required to avoid the chatbot taking orders for something silly. Now, having a microphone enabled bot does bring up the question of voice recordings. Sometimes people go to restaurants to talk about sensitive subjects and don't want the whole conversation recorded and sent to a data broker.
People may perceive not having human wait staff as "cheaping out", and there are lots of status-related reasons people go out to eat. Backend is possibly more ripe for automation because people don't see it. Lots of companies building dedicated in-franchise assemblylines for submarine sandwiches or poki bowls.
Vegas has a "robot bar" where the robo arm can prepare something like 50 different cocktails. The robot is cool but the menu software was horribly put together and it crashed before I could finish putting together an order. The human attendant came over to tell me I'm not allowed to hack the robot. Bad software saved me $15, thanks.
because you're too poor to afford anything else? why does anyone goto mcdonalds?
it's certainly not service that hasn't been good for a decade now. it's a consistent product not abysmal not great.
if a robot could reduce the chance of me getting soggy french fries and non crispy nuggies that's fine bring in the robot.
also lol plates and tables, how long has it been since you ate fast food? people eat in their car to avoid dealing with the shouting staff,dirty floor and sticky tables.
The conversation is specifically about sit down restaurants.