People gotta eat
Americans want to do that eating out of the house at record levels. How does the restaurant stay in business when nobody wants to work? The same way GM makes cars with fewer and fewer employees – Robots. Many think robot waiters are the solution to the hospitality’s labor shortages. Robot sales of them have been growing rapidly in recent years, with tens of thousands now gliding through dining rooms worldwide. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this is where the world is going,” said the dean of the Hilton College of Global Hospitality. The school’s restaurant began using a robot in December, and Reynolds says it has eased the workload for human staff and made service more efficient. But others say, “Restaurants are pretty chaotic places, so it’s very hard to insert automation in a way that is really productive.” Still, robots are proliferating. Redwood City, California-based Bear Robotics introduced its Servi robot in 2021 and expects to have 10,000 deployed by the end of this year in 44 U.S. states and overseas. Shenzen, China-based Pudu Robotics, which was founded in 2016, has deployed more than 56,000 robots worldwide. “Every restaurant chain is looking toward as much automation as possible,” said Phil Zheng of Richtech Robotics, an Austin-based maker of robot servers. “People are going to see these everywhere in the next year or two.”
Li Zhai was having trouble finding staff for Noodle Topia, his Madison Heights, Michigan, restaurant, in the summer of 2021, so he bought a BellaBot from Pudu Robotics. The robot was so successful he added two more; now, one robot leads diners to their seats while another delivers bowls of steaming noodles to tables. Employees pile dirty dishes onto a third robot to shuttle back to the kitchen. Now, Zhai only needs three people to do the same volume of business that five or six people used to handle. And they save him money. A robot costs around $15,000, he said, but a person costs several thousand per month. Zhai said the robots give human servers more time to mingle with customers, which increases tips. And customers often post videos of the robots on social media that entice others to visit. “Besides saving labor, the robots generate business. Staff have to learn to work around them but overall the robot is a plus.” he said. It saves staff trips back and forth to the kitchen and gives them more time with customers. Not everyone wants to see robots. “Humans don’t go to a full-service restaurant to be served by technology. They go for the experience of themselves and those people they care about being served by a human.” But, you know, “People gotta eat.”
Robot at your service
A robot went on a crime spree in our neighborhood right before it ran out of battery.
The cops are refusing to charge the perpetrator.
Why don’t Robots have Brothers?
Because they all have Trans Sisters.
My Chinese waiter thinks all white people look alike and gave my food to the wrong customer…
Wait! Never mind. That wasn’t my waiter.
The best joke on mankind is that computers ask humans to prove they are not robots…
What do you call a family of Mexican-American robots?
“Tex Mechs.”
April 7th Birthdays
1995 – Hallie Lou Richardson, 1994 – Giselle Kuri, 1974 – Jenna Fischer, 1915 – Billie Holiday
1954 – Tony Dorsett, 1975 – Tiki Barber, 1964 – Russel Crowe, 1954 – Jackie Chan