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ROBOT COOKS ARE RAPIDLY MAKING THEIR WAY INTO RESTAURANT KITCHENS

Before the end of 2024, a brand-new pizza firm plans to hit the Los Angeles area. But this isn’t just another pizza place. This company plans to serve pizza from trucks and the pies themselves are put together not by humans but by robotics developed by engineers from SpaceX. The machine can produce a pizza every 45 seconds.

5 Benson Tsai, who founded Stellar Pizza in 2019 along with fellow SpaceX engineers Brian Langone and James Wahawisan, got about two dozen former SpaceX employees to build a touchless pizza-making machine that fits in the back of a truck.

Robot chefs becoming “commonplace”

Jake Brewer, Miso Robotics’ chief strategy officer, said such machinery will soon be commonplace 10 in restaurants: “You can go see robots cooking right now and that’s only going to grow week over week.”

Chipotle Mexican Grill worked with Miso Robotics to customize the “Chippy” robot, which cooks and seasons Chipotle’s chips with salt and fresh lime juice. The robot is trained to recreate the exact recipe using artificial intelligence. The company plans to use it in a restaurant in Southern California later this year and will determine if it will launch it nationally.

15 Part of the adoption is driven by an inability to find workers. A recent report from Lightspeed found that 50% of restaurant owners plan to install automation technology within the next three years. For Chipotle, it’s not about replacing workers but allowing them to complete more impactful tasks than repetitive things like making chips.

Clemson University professor Richard Pak, an expert on the use of autonomous technology, said 20 automation works better for food that is cheap. “When you’re paying for it, when you’re paying more, you’re paying for experience and artistry,” he said. “And so, I don’t know if these kinds of robots would be acceptable in higher-end restaurants.”

Yet there is some concern in the broader restaurant market as well. A recent poll by Big Red Rooster found that a third of diners don’t want to see robots preparing their food. 25 (Fragment adapted from CNBC.COM.)

1) BRIEFLY ANSWER ONLY 4 OUT OF THE FOLLOWING 6 QUESTIONS WITH ONLY THE DATA REQUIRED (NOT A WHOLE SENTENCE) (2 POINTS; 0.5 POINTS EACH).

1.

What does ‘this’ refer to in line 1?

2.

How frequently can the robotic pizza-making machine developed by Space X engineers produce a pizza?

3.

Does Jake Brewer believe that robot chefs will become more common in restaurants?

4.

What does the “Chippy” robot cook?

5.

What factor is partially driving the adoption of automation technology in restaurants?

6.

Does Clemson University professor Richard Park believe that automation works better for expensive food?