And so it begins, Flippy the burger flipping robot starts work in California

[Master Disaster]

Caliburger, a fast food chain has today seen the end to a long term dream of an automated burger flipping robot with Flippy taking orders at it's Pasadena restaurant, the chain eventually wants the robots in 50 of its stores.

Quote

A year after announcing a partnership with Caliburger, Miso Robotics’ resident chef has finally graduated Hamburger University. The AI-enabled line cook starts today, joining the human crew at the fast casual restaurant’s Pasadena location during the lunch shift.

 

The deal has been in the works for some time, with plans to bring the robot to 50 of the chain’s international locations. Back in September, around the same time Miso CEO Dave Zito was on-stage at Disrupt SF, Flippy was being demoed at the Pasadena restaurant — the robotics’ company’s home turf. Today, however, the first real world implementation of the technology.

Creator Miso Robotics drummed up 14 million dollars in investment to fund the development of Flippy

Quote

The initial appeal of the system is pretty clear for a restaurant like Caliburger, which will no doubt drum up some publicity for its early adoption of robotic kitchen equipment. But along with the other investors that have helped Miso raise a total of $14 million in disclosed funding, there’s hope for long-term benefits in an industry where turnover is a big obstacle in keeping a kitchen up and running.

Over time Miso hope that Flippy can be taught how to chop, fry, grill, add cheese and even season food

Quote

"Flippy is novel, but definitely not a novelty,” Zito told TechCrunch ahead of the announcement. “As it improves its speed and skillset over time such as frying, chopping and grilling menu items and adding seasoning or cheese to patties, CaliBurger will see an increase in productivity. In addition, we’ve modeled our pricing based off expected value each robotic kitchen assistant can provide at scale.”

At $60,000 a pop he's not a cheap as a burger chef yet however Miso point out his price will fall in time plus he will save money in other areas such as food waste

Quote

Flippy’s entry level price tag is $60,000 — considerably higher than your average burger chef makes in a year. There’s also a 20-percent recurring annual fee for the robot’s leaning and maintenance, but Caliburger is confident in its return on investment through decreased wait times, consistency and decreased food waste.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/05/flippy-the-robot-hamburger-chef-goes-to-work/

 

This raises some interesting questions for me, in 10 years when all fast food restaurants have Flippies what do all the people who no longer have jobs do for work?

[aisle9]

#skynet

[Master Disaster]

Just now, aisle9 said:

#skynet

More #thousandsunemployedbecauseofrobotsnet

[Techicolors]

would be amazing to see this at mcdonalds or burger king. McDonalds near me already have a kiosk to order

[mynameisjuan]

Like I get why people are pissed when robots take our jobs...

 

But businesses are not your friends, they are designed to make money and if they can pay $60k one time to replace $100k/year worth of employees....im mean come on...if it was your business you would do the same. 

[Eduard the weeb]

there gonna put us outta jobs then make us become there servants so we don't die from being malnourished.

[ItsMitch]

I take it's programmed to know when the burger is cooked or does it know each individual burger's cooking time

[EnergyEclipse]

I hope someone hacks this so it starts flipping the burgers at the ceiling... Just you wait

[bimmerman]

A repetitive task ripe for automation has been successfully automated?

 

Color me shocked.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Eduard the weeb said:

there gonna put us outta jobs then make us become there servants so we don't die from being malnourished.

[BuckGup]

Maybe it'll make society more productive so they can get better jobs then just flipping burgers. Or at least high schoolers will look for apprenticeships or other more useful jobs that get them job experience rather than flipping patties

[RotoCoreOne]

I dream that automation will help lead us into a utopian society but unfortunately life dictates differently

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, BuckGup said:

Maybe it'll make society more productive so they can get better jobs then just flipping burgers. Or at least high schoolers will look for apprenticeships or other more useful jobs that get them job experience rather than flipping patties

Without creating enough new jobs to replace the ones that are being automated that's a literal impossibility. If 200,000 people are suddenly out of work all those people are now fighting over the same pool of jobs as everyone else.

[MyName13]

3 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

Maybe it'll make society more productive so they can get better jobs then just flipping burgers. Or at least high schoolers will look for apprenticeships or other more useful jobs that get them job experience rather than flipping patties

*than

2 minutes ago, RotoCoreOne said:

I dream that automation will help lead us into a utopian society but unfortunately life dictates differently

...or make a Wall-E society.

[RotoCoreOne]

1 minute ago, MyName13 said:

*than

...or make a Wall-E society.

That'd be cool except for being fat lol

[BuckGup]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

Without creating enough new jobs to replace the ones that are being automated that's a literal impossibility. If 200,000 people are suddenly out of work all those people are now fighting over the same pool of jobs as everyone else.

Ship them to mars yeah I don't have an answer for that neither does society 

[TacoSenpai]

I'm telling you automation and high minimum wage is like adding oil to a fire.

[knightslugger]

The yearly maintenance on that thing from hovering over vaporized animal fat will probably cost as much as a year of health insurance. Breaking a leg would cost less than fixing that thing.

[dizmo]

Good. The sooner we can propel towards basic income the better. This will simply expedite that. Granted, probably not in the US, where everyone is super greedy and doesn't see the benefits of a decent healthcare system, but still. The rest of the world can flourish while the US falls.

42 minutes ago, Technicolors said:

would be amazing to see this at mcdonalds or burger king. McDonalds near me already have a kiosk to order

Only one? I don't think any of the McDonald's here don't have them. Wendy's is also starting to roll them out.

38 minutes ago, SC2Mitch said:

I take it's programmed to know when the burger is cooked or does it know each individual burger's cooking time

Haha, fast food burgers are generally just timed. They're so thin it's hard to have uncooked parts.

31 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

Maybe it'll make society more productive so they can get better jobs then just flipping burgers. Or at least high schoolers will look for apprenticeships or other more useful jobs that get them job experience rather than flipping patties

Yes and no. I think it's going to affect those without work experience that want to gain it while going to school the most. Most jobs that are construction based (and a lot that are other apprentice jobs) do their work at the same time students are in school. Maybe we'll see a shift to school at night.

25 minutes ago, LordTaco42 said:

I'm telling you automation and high minimum wage is like adding oil to a fire.

How is high minimum wage adding oil to the fire?

8 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

The yearly maintenance on that thing from hovering over vaporized animal fat will probably cost as much as a year of health insurance. Breaking a leg would cost less than fixing that thing.

Maybe in a lot of the world, but I doubt that it'd cost less than fixing a leg in the US

[Master Disaster]

14 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

The yearly maintenance on that thing from hovering over vaporized animal fat will probably cost as much as a year of health insurance. Breaking a leg would cost less than fixing that thing.

Maintenance is 20% of $60,000 a year

 

60,000 / 100 * 20 = $12,000 a year.

[Silentprototipe]

Welp there goes the low skilled labour force  

[Blademaster91]

18 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Good. The sooner we can propel towards basic income the better. This will simply expedite that. Granted, probably not in the US, where everyone is super greedy and doesn't see the benefits of a decent healthcare system, but still. The rest of the world can flourish while the US falls.

Yeah because basic income is better when it means higher taxes for you? The EU is actually struggling while trying to implement basic income,and will just add more fuel towards more automation.  Though congrats for making this another EU vs. US political debate.

15 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Maintenance is 20% of $60,000 a year

 

60,000 / 100 * 20 = $12,000 a year.

Much cheaper than paying someone minimum wage,and the robot won't get injured on the job,complain about wages,call in sick or not show up for work. Automation will just create other maintenance & basic skills jobs,it's not like the hamburger flippers are out of a job.

[JoostinOnline]

As if we didn't all know this was coming.  Fast food workers constantly bitch about how they aren't making enough money, so companies go the cheaper route that doesn't involve complaining.

[Mr. Smiley]

6 minutes ago, dizmo said:

 

How is high minimum wage adding oil to the fire?

You are kidding right? How is it not adding to the fire.  If you run a business and spend say 100k on labor a year at the current minimum wage, $7.25/hour, but all the sudden the cost of labor doubles to $15/hour, now you are paying 200k a year in labor.  Where is all that extra money going to come from?  Most places aren't pulling in huge amounts of profit like you think they are and can't just absorb a 100% increase in labor prices.  Therefore they have to either raise their prices on all of their products to maintain the same profit levels, which in turn puts the people that had increased wages at the same point as before.  Or find a cheaper source of labor, like this 60k robot.  Would pay for itself in less than a year in the instance above.  

[dizmo]

5 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

Yeah because basic income is better when it means higher taxes for you? The EU is actually struggling while trying to implement basic income,and will just add more fuel towards more automation. Though congrats for starting yet another EU vs US political debate.

I know, heaven forbid one should have an opinion! It doesn't necessarily mean higher taxes. With a basic living wage we'll see people go out and better themselves, make more money, which in turn means increased tax revenue. Of course there will be those who just live off the system, but I don't think the numbers will be that high. As they better themselves, eat better, expenditures on things like policing, heathcare, and welfare all go down. Canada has implemented basic income in a few communities with great success.

Just now, Mr. Smiley said:

You are kidding right? How is it not adding to the fire.  If you run a business and spend say 100k on labor a year at the current minimum wage, $7.25/hour, but all the sudden the cost of labor doubles to $15/hour, now you are paying 200k a year in labor.  Where is all that extra money going to come from?  Most places aren't pulling in huge amounts of profit like you think they are and can't just absorb a 100% increase in labor prices.  Therefore they have to either raise their prices on all of their products to maintain the same profit levels, which in turn puts the people that had increased wages at the same point as before.  Or find a cheaper source of labor, like this 60k robot.  Would pay for itself in less than a year in the instance above.  

Yeah, I can definitely see how you'd come to that conclusion. However have you seen the statistics about how many people are making minimum wage? It's actually quite low. Granted this isn't a blanket statement, but it's true for most places. The number of affected people is relatively low. Let's also look at what most companies that employ minimum wage employees are; fast food, entry level retail, coffee shops. Aside from coffee shops, most of these are large corporations that can easily bear the burden of higher wages. Not only that, these people are now making a lot more money. What are they more likely to do? Spend it within the community. Which increases profits. Not only that, $15/hr doesn't have to be minimum wage. It is what would be required in more expensive cities, but a living wage in a lot of places is less than that.

 

I see what you mean, but honestly; do you really think $7.25/hr is really enough to live on?