[paulpauper]

Automation is capital intensive to set up, so it may take years for it to pay for itself. This delays adoption considerably for smaller businesses. Hair cutting is one of those jobs that resists automation. Same for burger flipping. It's not as if salons and restaurants can afford expensive robots to automate those tasks. Customer support automation may mean lost business due to angry customers.

[elevaet]

Hah! Never mind the capital overhead, it might be a while before customers trust a scissors-wielding robot with their head!

[sidpatil]

https://pbfcomics.com/comics/automatic-business/

[scoopr]

Indeed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ8Xgp8ALFo

[Robotbeat]

It occurs to me that buying a robot arm to literally flip burgers is highly anthropomorphizing the solution space. You want a machine that gives you a burger at the end. This is a pretty easy thing to automate if you had a huge, constant demand for burgers at one single location using standard factory automation strategies. Might not be feasible at all for the typical franchises with spikey demand and relatively low volume.

I say we increase the minimum wage to about $20/hour, adjusted for productivity growth (per capita GDP) since the 1960s and see what happens.

[coredog64]

There’s not actually a need to physically flip burgers at McD. They use a clamshell grill that cooks both sides at once.

Besides, the fry robot has a better ROI given the profit margin on that item.

[Robotbeat]

Makes sense. Stuff like the clamshell device is a more practical innovation than a clunky and slow anthropomorphic robot arm flipping a burger.

We don’t fly aircraft like ornithopters, but with ducted fans and propellers.

[marcosdumay]

Assembling different kinds of sandwich is the kind of problem where a robot arm may be among the best solutions. But yeah, it's bad for flipping burgers alone.

[toast0]

> Same for burger flipping.

Burger assembling may resist, but I know of at least two burger chains that use conveyor charbroilers where you put the patties in on one end and they come out nicely cooked on the other. I don't think those have a large capital cost either.

McDonald's is always inovating on labor reduction. They've got robots pouring drinks now, but they also used to have the size buttons to dispense a specific amount of soda which reduced labor. When you add up enough savings, you can run the restaurant with one less person; which is handy.