A robot named Flippy runs the fry station in a white castle outside of Chicago. White Castle announced plans to add 100 Flippy's to its kitchens nationwide. Up to 82% of restaurant jobs could, to some extent, be replaced by robots. Automation could save U.S. fast food restaurants more than $12 billion in annual wages. And restaurants are also struggling to find staff. U.S. restaurants have lost more than 560,000 jobs, or about 4.6% of their workforce, compared to their pre-pandemic levels. So what impact will robots have on the fast food industry and the livelihoods of its workers? CNBC took a look behind the scenes of restaurant robot maker Miso Robotics to find out.
Zume, funded by former robot pizza startup SoftBank, now makes compostable packaging from agricultural waste, creating a closed-loop system for customers. The sustainable packaging market, valued at $274.2 billion, is expected to reach $413.8 billion by 2027, according to Grand View Research. Zume has recommissioned its robot fleet to compete in this growing industry. CNBC got a first look at Zume's packaging plant and spoke with Alex Garden, president and CEO of Zume, to find out how compostable products could help solve the plastic waste problem.
Boston Dynamics has captured the imagination of the general public with its viral YouTube videos, but now the company hopes to attract the attention of paying customers. Initially, Boston Dynamics received much of its funding from the US military and DARPA. Later it was funded by major owners such as Google, SoftBank and more recently Hyundai. All of these companies have tried to steer the robot maker down the path to commercialization, and Boston Dynamics is finally getting there. CNBC got a rare glimpse into Boston Dynamics' Massachusetts office, where the team showed off two of the robots it's working to commercialize: Spot and Stretch.
Chapters:
00:00 — Presentation
00:39 — Will robots replace fast food workers? (Published January 2023)
11:36 a.m. — Hyped Pizza Robot Company is now tackling our plastic waste problem (published June 2021)
24:52 — How Boston Dynamics is building its robotics empire (published October 2021)
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The rise of robots CNBC Marathon
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