After writing my previous post about a convenience store in Europe that has no workers and is controlled by an app, I became more interested in stores and restaurants that are using technology to replace workers. This being said, I found an article on Business Insider about San Francisco's first automated restaurant recently opening. The restaurant features iPads on the walls where customers can place their orders and pay, all without interacting with an employee. After placing their order, their meal will "magically" appear in a once blackened cubicle (a behind the scenes worker will place it there). The restaurant isn't fully automated, as workers prepare the food and one stands at the front of the store to answer any questions about the unique style of restaurant. Even so, the technology has replaced several jobs, leading to a more profitable business. In fact, after opening their original location in August, the restaurant has already expanded to Los Angeles.
The article details several facts about robots replacing humans in the work force and notes that in 2014, researchers at Oxford warned that 47% of total U.S. employment was at risk of computerization. This is obviously a big concern as many more jobs will need to become available for those that are eventually taken over by computers. It will be interesting to see where society progresses and how the economy is affected by the shift to computerization.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-the-machine-worker-is-here-2016-3
This was a really interesting read. I also wrote my last article on the computerization of jobs and found the topic to be fascinating. The idea of this restaurant is rather strange. The restaurant wants to appear as if it is completely automated, yet still has employees making the food. I am not sure exactly where the company is saving money if it still has to hire employees to stand at the front and answer questions.
ReplyDeleteAs technology continues to advance in the future, this issue of computerization taking over low-skilled labor will continue to come up. McDonalds has been very forward about the possibility of computerization in response to the "Fight For $15" campaign, which is the movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. It will be interesting to see the long-term effects of these restaurants in order to gauge whether or not these largely-automated systems will "stick".
ReplyDeleteI think in the future these kinds of advancements will only continue to become more and more common in these low-skilled jobs. I had read another article where pizza companies are beginning to experiment with this beyond computerized ordering and now are looking at using robots to deliver the pizzas as well. With the advancements we have seen with self driving cars, I think it is only a matter of time before the only thing left that is done by humans is the cooking and preparation of the food itself. It will be interesting to see where the fast food industry will end up in the future given these technological advancements.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that technology is taking over and it is quite terrifying. Even though we do live in an era in which technology is dominating I still believe that it is unnecessary in some cases. For example, I would like to think that everyone would prefer to have an individual taking their order at a restaurant versus a computer. Keeping employees would actually prevent unemployment rate to increase. However, these companies only think about how much money they will save themselves and not how it will affect the economy.
ReplyDeleteI actually had this idea one day while I was at Chipotle. I realized that realistically, you only needed a chef and maybe one other person to watch over the machines. However, I had no idea that this was already becoming a thing! I agree with this summary. I believe that it is only a matter of time until this becomes the norm. Hopefully, too many jobs won't be lost.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Trey said. I think that when technology appears to work as well as people would in the labor force, then I think that places like McDonalds will make the move so that they don't have to pay as much as they are for people to work. I think this is a good idea and if I owned a fast food company I would think about doing this but since it has not been tried before I would probably wait it out a little bit. I also think that this will slowly make people less social. When I was a little kid I used to get nervous sometimes ordering food from a waiter or someone taking my order. I feel like if this was implemented throughout different places, kids would not have to learn to communicate with people about what they want. Sure that is just a little thing in the process of growing up, but I feel like that could hinder their social lives in the long run, and make them feel uncomfortable when talking to strangers, resulting in technology as their way of communicating.
ReplyDeleteI think the paranoia about new technology taking jobs has existed since the industrial revolution. We have always found ways to adjust. We become more efficient, the standard of everyone increases, and people will be allocated to do things that are more worth their time. Of course things aren't always positive, but its a naive thought to think that this predicament is unique in the last couple of centuries. I do think the struggle is the short term impact of these changes and individual losing jobs, so yes within a generation of people fear may be warranted as people (particularly unskilled labor) look to find a niche. But ultimately, I think society will adjust.
ReplyDeleteBeing completely honest, while I really enjoy learning about new technology uses and extremely interesting ways to replace labor, or at least minimize it, I am very scared about what technological innovations like this will do to the labor force. This just shows that technology most definitely has the power to replace human manual/mental labor in multiple different industries. Also, I have a big problem with security in situations like this. While I believe that many task/jobs can be performed by technology, human presence or labor will always be needed on some level in any industry.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting idea that running an automated restaurant. It would definitely save cost from cutting waiters, but meanwhile, increasing the unemployment rate. I believe that government should make some policies to maintain the unemployment rate within a proper range. Actually, I believe that the computerization would not affect too much on unemployment rate in the future, because this kind of industries or restaurants would not immediate replace all the traditional industries or restaurants. During that time, the society would adjust little by little.
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