Robots are replacing servers in China restaurants.

[former9thward]

You make your order from your smartphone and the robot delivers it to you. How much do you tip a robot? And how soon will this show up in the U.S.?

[restorefreedom]

1. oh good. more jobs we can look forward to losing

and thx to tpp, i am sure china will be thrilled to sell those bots at a great price

[Person 2713]

2. Their small population can not support the workforce needed in China. Hey at least no attitude...

[Egnever]

3. Won't be long before we see that here.

It is unavoidable. I am not sure we should be trying to avoid it.

[Suich]

4. No... just no!

I don't even like those self-checkout places at grocery stores!

[LuvNewcastle]

5. It will probably be a good while before

that catches on in the U.S. Most restaurants here pay servers so little that by the time the server gets all of his sidework done at the end of his shift, he basically pays the restaurant to work there. Servers also get blamed for anything that goes wrong with an order. The kitchen hardly ever takes the blame. People get treated worse than robots in this country.

[Travis_0004]

6. This isn't really a new invention

In japan there are a lot of sushi restaurants that use a conveyor belt. You order your food on an ipad, and when your food is approaching, the ipad alerts you to look out for it. You know what color the plate should be and what letter to look out for.

I think in the US, nicer restaurants will always have a need for a server, so I wouldn't be too worried about this.

I

[pinboy3niner]

7. looks pretty good until..

[kentauros]

9. So long as their programmers have a sense of humor

and make it so that the robots can post about bad customers to NotAlwaysRight.com, I'm fine with them serving me

[The Wielding Truth]

8. Could we read more? Do you have a source?

[former9thward]

11. This is from the BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-27107248

[betsuni]

10. I saw this on TV this morning.

The robots are really slow and customers still have to get out of their seats to get the food from the tray. Free publicity for the restaurant, though. Conveyor belts are much more convenient.

[markonthemark]

12. Do they ask if you want fries with that?

[Recursion]

13. We have conveyer belt restaurants here in the US

This seems like a more bug-prone way to do the same thing...