09. 04. 2007
Baggers: world's first automated restaurant
An inventor in Nuremberg, Germany, has just opened a fully-automated restaurant, Baggers, that delivers meals to diners via a gravity-powered rail system. No surly waiters or snobby sommelier, and you don't need to leave a tip for the machine. Hmmm...makes you think, doesn't it?
The kitchen is intalled directly beneath the roof of the multi-story restaurant. Customers order their meals using a touch-screen system that is placed at each table, and the entire restaurant is networked via a computer system. Customers' orders are registered upstairs in the kitchen and a computer in the cellar keeps track of supply stocks. The system also calculates the likely delivery times for drinks and meals at every table and keeps customers informed.
The inventor, Michael Mack, told the German publication SPIEGEL, "Billions of euros in personnel costs could be saved using this system," adding that he has no moral qualms about the resulting loss of jobs in the service sector if his invention ever catches on. "We don't need service at the table."
Not surprisingly, reaction to the restaurant has been mixed. For my part, I'm not sure I trust a computer to recommend a dish, or pair a wine with the entree, and some people eat out for the social experience and the ambience.
Mack says he's hoping to interest fast food restuarants such as McDonalds, which is where this invention belongs.
Via SciFi.
Posted by Evan
Category:
current affairs
Tags: restaurants
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