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Burger-flipper has job safety from the AI automation robots. Test runs of Flippy the Burger Flipping robot apparently didn't last more than a day, before Flippy was let go. Apparently he wasn't fast enough, lacked social skills and other workers had to work around him and his giant burger flipping arm. Flippy 2.0 (or whatever) will probably return one day with new burger flipping artificial intelligence, an improved arm and one of them funny Hawkings-like voice boxes so he can chit-chat with the other co-workers.
"Mostly it's the timing," he said. "When you're in the back, working with people, you talk to each other. With Flippy, you kind of need to work around his schedule. Choreographing the movements of what you do, when and how you do it."
Previously: Burger-Flipping Robot Will Grill Meat in 50 Fast Food Restaurants
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday March 12 2018, @06:26PM (3 children)
Not trolling, just pointing out that those are menial tasks with technical solutions.
Many of those solutions haven't been cost-effective enough to replace a no-benefits minimum-wage job in most of the US. That's more a judgment on the ability to get an endless supply of desperate no-benefits minimum-wage workers, than an inability to automate those tasks.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 12 2018, @07:39PM (2 children)
Well, for once, I'll side with the "how much are you willing to pay for that burger?" crew...
Sure, we could fully automate McDonald's today, we have the technology, but it would more than triple the capital cost of the restaurant, in exchange for reduced (not zero) labor rates - and the labor you need will be more technically skilled and harder to boss around - not a very attractive proposition for most franchise owners who are used to being able to be the smartest guy in their operation - not that they are the smartest guy, just that they don't _need_ anybody smarter than them to keep the money flowing.
Once you've invested all this money in your Robo kitchen, there's little liklihood that it will help you sell significantly more burgers (even a risk of less), so now you are looking at a 3x+ ROI period for your initial investment (because labor costs, while important, are not the bulk of the issue...), and with 3x ROI time, it doesn't take a genius to see how that's going to slow down expansion and growth of your empire. We had neighbors in their mid 20s whose parents "gave them" a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts store to operate, with the expectation that after they got that one in good shape, they'd be expanding to an additional 3-5 stores in the next few years... that's a pretty typical pattern, store owners are no longer content to own and operate one good location - as owners they want continuous expansion. You would think that robot workers would be welcomed as a predictable labor pool, but they're just too expensive right now.
The answer to "how much are you willing to pay for that burger" is answered by the majority of the burger buying market with "as little as possible." We're not going to get significant automation until automation can make the burgers for less, instead of more.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday March 12 2018, @09:10PM (1 child)
Agree with you, but you side-stepped my point:
> not going to get significant automation until automation can make the burgers for less, instead of more.
or ... run out of people willing to work for peanuts. Unskilled immigrants and teenagers take jobs that don't pay a living wage nor benefits, allowing owners to cash in.
In places where the minimum wage is rising, and in those states debating single-payer (tiny CA), storefronts using the "labor is not the bulk of the issue" business model may soon have another look at partial automation, if they want to keep the Dollar Menu.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 12 2018, @11:17PM
Oh, are you in the U.S.? In the U.S. we squeeze the social programs until cheap labor drips out. These namby pamby minimum wage increasing states can play their utopian pipe dream games, in good 'old Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi - you won't be runnin' out of cheap labor before doooomseday. When the locals get too rich to be bothered, they'll just let in a few more illegal Mexicans and have 'em work off the books. Trump won't be president forever.
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