Robotics Won’t Work in the Wrong Places

There is no doubt that robots will be replacing human beings in hundreds of different roles in the workplace.  And this one, baking pizzas, on the surface, is as workable a suggestion as any other.

Let’s imagine that we have a low-cost kiosk that simply enables a hungry patron to plunk down a credit card, and walk away a few minutes later with a piping hot, perfectly constructed, made-to-order pizza.  What could go wrong?

Well, let’s start with this: Where would you site it?

It needs to be found where human intervention is not required, and could actually be perceived as a drawback.  You’re not going to walk into a “mom and pop” pizza place and ask mom or pop to point you to a machine like this.  That means that you’re talking about places like airports or shopping malls.

But are consumers really going to find this appealing?  I like the guy who commented, “This will work great, until the machine inevitably malfunctions, and the consumer beats it into little bity pieces.”