Overcooked? Why robotic pizza makers are failing
Robotic pizza-making ventures are struggling to achieve commercial viability due to technical failures and high maintenance costs. Despite the challenges faced by companies like Picnic and Zume, some restaurant owners remain optimistic about the future of full automation in food service.
Why it matters
It highlights the practical limitations of applying automation to the hospitality sector and the risks associated with investing in unproven food-tech hardware.
Share Save Add as preferred on Google Chris Baraniuk Technology reporter Getty Images Robot pizza makers have struggled to make money The "dough feeder". The sauce and cheese modules – even the pepperoni-sprinkler. All lay still.
A now defunct duo of robots were supposed to be churning out pizzas at a Moto Pizza restaurant in Seattle.
However, in May the pair were rendered "basically useless" when their supplier, Picnic, abruptly shut down. Technical support for the robots evaporated at that moment, says Lee Kindell, founder and chief executive of Moto Pizza.
He was left wondering what to do with the $160,000 (£118,000), cabinet-like machines and whether buying in pizza bots was really worth it.
"I don't know if I want to do a partnership again because of the failures," he says.
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