Chipotle welcomes you to the age of robot guacamole

Unhappy with the speed at which human workers prep avocados, Chipotle has introduced a robot to get the guacamole going. The fittingly named Autocado (sigh) won't do all the work, however. It's an avocado prep machine that can cut, core and peel an avocado without the need for human hands but the rest of the mashing and …

[Jan 0]

......."frequently Dud".

Chipotle is a company?!

What next? Companies called Potato, Wine, Car or Underpants?

How does this affect other companies selling potatoes, wine, cars and underpants?

What dwill this do to the way we speak about them?

[Roj Blake]

Re: ......."frequently Dud".

It's no more egregious than Budweiser producing beer that's nothing like actual budweiser.

[that one in the corner]

No Chipotle north of Watford

So our famous Northern culinary expertise isn't being threatened yet.

Anyone fancy a Parmo?

[Snake]

Re: No Chipotle north of Watford

Even if Chipotle *was* in that area culinary expertise wouldn't be threatened - can anyone on planet Earth actually try to claim that Chipotle food tastes anything beyond salt and the hot sauce??

[Neil Barnes]

How many east pondians

had to look up 'masa' as I did?

(No, I'm not going to tell you; do your own research. I'm guessing it's likely that at least southwestern USA and central americans already know!)

[PhilipN]

How many avocados to spread on one slice of toast?

After binning the ones which are too hard, too black, overripe etc.

About 100 I reckon.

[Roj Blake]

This Won't End Well

"Hi, I'm Autocado! Would you like some guacamole?"

"No"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"What about some avocado toast?"

"No! I don't want avocado soup, avocado smoothie, or avocado salad either!"

"Oh! So you you're more of an avocado sandwich type! Coming right up!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: This Won't End Well

Or would you rather lose a testicle?

[A. Coatsworth]

We are not ogint to make it right?... mankind, I mean

"To ensure we didn't lose the humanity behind our culinary experience, we trained Chippy extensively to ensure the output mirrored our current product, delivering some subtle variations in flavor that our guests expect,"

It is genuinely chilling that a human can say something like this without a trace of irony... This is a low point in dystopic parlance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: We are not ogint to make it right?... mankind, I mean

... chilling that a human can say something like this ...

Indeed ...

So much bullshit, so little time.

And all of it in the restless search of making a few more bucks, paying employees less and less and eventually firing them.

.

[MachDiamond]

Replace the lowest paid workers

Even though politicians have been going full blast on making sure that the lowest skilled workers can still earn a "livable wage", companies are working to eliminate those people as fast as they can. $22/hr for somebody dunking potato strips in hot oil will just lead to fewer jobs for that (non) skill set. Still, I find it odd to see stories about advances in robotics aimed at getting rid of the people paid the least. I would think it would make more sense to go after those that get paid more. The ones at the very top do so little that it's only their absence that will make an improvement.

It's been a couple of years since I've been to a fast food industry trade show, but the last time, automation was all the rage. It won't be long before we have near 100% automation. The upside is order accuracy will rise above the 50% mark. Is anybody yet creating a 3ton porkuswine?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Replace the lowest paid workers

"It won't be long before we have near 100% automation."

It's already happening, but mainly "experimental" in places like Seoul and Tokyo where there seems to be an appetite for robots, weird gadgets and automation that may or may not catch on around the rest of the world.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Replace the lowest paid workers

"It's already happening, but mainly "experimental" in places like Seoul and Tokyo where there seems to be an appetite for robots, weird gadgets and automation that may or may not catch on around the rest of the world."

YouTube suggested a " How it's made" channel that I had a look through and there was a company that made sushi machines. One would take a hopper of rice and form it into little loaves to make sushi with and another would apply a layer of rice to a piece of nori, eject so the worker could add contents and then form it all into a roll ready to transfer to the slicing machine.

McDonalds has shown the burger flipper robot companies the folly of their ways by having a dual sided griddle to cook both sides of a meat patty at the same time. The interesting food robot stuff is coming from companies looking to make entirely new forms that lend themselves to automation. Trying to come up with a machine to flip burgers in the same way as a human would doesn't make sense.

[Winkypop]

Gives a new meaning to

Avocado dip with chips.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Magic!

Where did the pits and skins go?