Chipotle Mexican Grill began testing a robot created by automated kitchen tech startup Hyphen that can automatically assemble its famous burrito bowls and salads.
Chipotle invested an undisclosed amount into Hyphen (formerly Ono Food) in 2022. The robot will be used for digital orders, and works by pulling the bowls into a “digital” assembly line where ingredients are dispensed by a machine based on customer input. It is being tested at the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine, CA.
The food chain still plans to have human workers in their stores, but likely at a reduced number. Chipotle has invested $50 million in a venture it calls “CULTIVATE NEXT” that funds innovation in farming, supply chain, robots, and alternative proteins, among other things. CULTIVATE NEXT has invested in Vebu, an automation company, and Autocado, an avocado processing “cobotic” (collaborative robotic) machine that can cut, core, and peel avocados.
This is the Autocado — Chipotle's new avocado-prepping robot. 🥑 https://t.co/k27IsUJeKF pic.twitter.com/rlkmdrM2Pp
— CNBC (@CNBC) July 21, 2023
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These aren’t the first forays Chipotle has made into automation technology. It has been testing “Chippy,” a robot that can make tortilla chips, for about a year. It implemented it at a California location after it successfully passed a series of tests.
Meet Chipotle’s tortilla chip-making robot Chippy 🤖 pic.twitter.com/JIQhB3lAgK
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) October 3, 2022
Restaurants such as salad chain Sweetgreen and coffee chain Starbucks are also investing large sums of money into automation, both on the hardware and the AI software sides. But it could be years, even a decade, before they see returns.
Nevertheless, Sweetgreen opened a fully automated location in Naperville, IL this past May using technology from Spyce. Sweetgreen describes the store, nicknamed the “Infinite Kitchen,” as a “frictionless experience” where bowls are moved down a conveyer belt as customers make topping selections on the spot or online before coming to the store. Their choices shoot out of a dispenser that stands above the bowls.
a new way to get your greens 🥗 sweetgreen infinite kitchen is our culinary automation technology that portions, dresses, and mixes the freshest ingredients supplied by the farmers we know and trust. visit us today and be one of the first to try it! pic.twitter.com/2dCewrtS5l
— sweetgreen (@sweetgreen) May 10, 2023
Sweetgreen claims the machines are highly accurate and save the company money. Currently a human stands at the end of the line to add final touches, but one can imagine even these workers will be phased out at some point.
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