What Does the Rise of Machines Mean for Fast-Food Workers?
Experts say fast-food burgers will be made by robots in about five years
The burger robot is cool as hell. The elegant mass of machinery, color-coordinated in white, copper, and blond wood, represents some important, unanswered questions, such as how automation will reshape the dining industry. But before we address that, let’s be real about San Francisco’s Creator restaurant and its burger-making machine: This thing is far out!
Unlike the automated woks at Spyce in Boston, which fry up pre-sliced and portioned ingredients, the machine at Creator is fed whole brisket and chuck, peeled onions, pickles, etc. It slices tomatoes; it bisects, toasts, and butters buns; grinds and sears beef; and squeezes out doses of ketchup measured to the milliliter.
Never mind that this enables Creator to use chef Heston Blumenthal’s ridiculously perfectionist methodology for a “loosely packed” and “vertically aligned” bite, meaning that the grain of the burger will run in the same direction as your…
