Restaurant Sends Robot Waitstaff To Scrap Pile After They Fail To Serve Man

Hey, you know how plutocrats love to smugly threaten that if food service employees keep seeking a living wage, they'll be replaced with robots? Yeah, about that: a restaurant in Guangzhou, China, tried it, and it didn't work out so good.

You're familiar with the phrase "never trust a skinny cook?" We're thinking maybe it should be amended to include "and never trust any food service worker whose favorite meal consists of .exe files":  

According to Workers' Daily, two restaurants which made use of robotic waiters have closed down and a third which remains open has given all but one of the robots the sack.

Their human counterparts at the restaurant were full of complaints about their former colleagues. "The robots weren't able to carry soup or other food steady and they would frequently break down. The boss has decided never to use them again," said one employee.

Another waiter remarked that the robots were only able to perform a small number of tasks. "Their skills are somewhat limited," she said. "They can't take orders or pour hot water for customers."

So, couple thoughts here, or hell, just one: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SUCK IT, CARL'S JR. CEO ANDY PUZDER, YOU WALKING TESTICLE.

The key is this paragraph:

Zhang Yun, vice-principal of Guangdong University of Technology, explained that while robots were excellent at improving productivity in the manufacturing industry where tasks are repetitive, they were unable to perform well in fields where frequent human interaction was necessary.

It's the same thing we've been saying for a while: robots are nowhere near capable of replacing food workers (insofar as they'll ever be capable of it, which isn't nearly as much as jackasses like Puzder wish). But even if we assume they will one day be ready (they won't), in the meantime, Puzder and those like him can kindly shut the fuck up and pay their employees a living wage while the rest of us laugh our asses off at their precious robots both metaphorically and literally falling down the stairs.

[ Shanghaiist ]