The fight for $15 crowd, which is now advocating for over $20 an hour, should be proud of their work in making sure fewer and fewer jobs are available. We’ve already seen more and more self-ordering screens at restaurants and grocery stores, more of cooking the food be automated, and more of pushing consumers to order online/with an app and pay at the same time. All this reduces the need for all those workers. And now
Are robot waiters the future? Some restaurants think so
You may have already seen them in restaurants: waist-high machines that can greet guests, lead them to their tables, deliver food and drinks and ferry dirty dishes to the kitchen. Some have cat-like faces and even purr when you scratch their heads.
But are robot waiters the future? It’s a question the restaurant industry is increasingly trying to answer.
Many think robot waiters are the solution to the industry’s labor shortages. 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 Dennis Reynolds, dean of the Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston. 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 robot waiters aren’t much more than a gimmick that have a long way to go before they can replace humans. They can’t take orders, and many restaurants have steps, outdoor patios and other physical challenges they can’t adapt to.
But, those orders can be taken on touchscreens at the tables, which is not new. The restaurants will adapt their layouts for the robots. Who’s initial outlay could be expensive, but, the lifetime cost will be less. Plus, they don’t complain, they don’t show up late, they do not call out sick, they don’t talk back to customers, management, or cause Drama. They do not need health care or vacation time. All they need is some maintenance.
Still, the 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.
Well, they can’t say that they weren’t told this would happen. When you continually increase labor costs for general labor work. Eventually it becomes cost effective to just replace you. Especially as technology has caught up. General labor workers need to learn a skill, and become skilled labor. All those low skilled folks will find themselves going from $15 to $0.
Read: Who’s Up For Robot Waiters? »