The Future of Coffee: A Robotic Coffee Bar

Posted on Nov 11, 2020

robotic coffee bar

If you're traveling through San Francisco International Airport (SFO) this holiday season, you might be among the first customers at the robotic coffee bar. Cafe X has just opened in SFO and its barista robot is ready to serve you coffee, tea and other drinks.

Cafe X previously opened a robotic café in San Jose International Airport's Terminal B, near Gate 34. The company also has three other automated cafés in San Francisco. The new robot barista at San Francisco International Airport is located in Terminal 3, near boarding area E.

Cafe X uses a robotic arm to prepare and serve a variety of drinks. While coffee is one of the most popular choices, the barista robot can also make tea and other drinks. You can order a delicious coffee and ask the robot to add Clover Sonoma organic milk or Swedish oatmeal. Additionally, the robot will entertain you with dancing.

:: Read more : What is the Coffee Robot Barista?


Robotic Coffee Bar In the Airport

Airports are a good target for installing robots that can brew coffee due to their size and a steady stream of red-eyed customers who need a dose of caffeine. For example, 15 million passengers travel through San Jose International Airport each year, and most won't care who serves them drink, as long as it's fast. The barista robot can handle 10 orders at a time and has large pickup windows so it can catch a latte for the next flight.

Cafe X used what it learned in its previous locations to improve the barista robot, or coffee robot. The company plans to open more locations at other airports, including New York. Neither is it the only company that wants robots to serve coffee. Briggo Coffee Haus is another example of a robotic barista who can prepare the perfect cup of delicious espresso and also arrives at many airports around the country.

While critics point out that the barista robot will replace humans by taking their jobs, Cafe X explains that its technology creates new jobs for engineers, programmers, and more. However, a retail worker wouldn't be able to easily move into a robot engineer position at Cafe X. As other startups keep changing the work environment, there are still no clear solutions for displaced workers.

 

How They Came Up With the Robotic Coffee Bar

This is from a report from over a year ago about Cafe X. This is a robotic coffee bar that popped up in the San Francisco area. Everything is completely autonomous as the robotic arm produces and delivers drinks. After collecting data and feedback from the prototypes, Cafe X expands beyond San Francisco with an improved robot and a brand new location at San Jose International Airport (SJC). The new robot coffee bar has an updated interface, a more elegant design, as well as music and a "dancing robot". Cafe X also improved performance and speed.

Cafe X serves all types of beverages, including cappuccino, macchiato, tea, latte and hot chocolate. Whatever you decide, the wait won't be too long. Drinks are ready in 30 seconds and the precision of the robot ensures the right order every time. Thanks to the updated machine, Cafe X can now handle ten orders simultaneously. Customers place orders using a smartphone application or at a nearby kiosk. A signal is given and the robot arms start working on the drink. When the order is ready, customers will receive an SMS with a four-digit code. They then enter the code on the touchscreen and the coffee drink is lowered into the seller's compartment. The robot even makes a friendly wave when the order is complete.

So robots are fun ... but is coffee good? The company is really proud of the quality of its product. They use local baking ovens and have various organic milk options. Prices are also reasonable with most drinks under $ 3.

“It’s super rewarding to now be launching our first airport Cafe X location. We look forward to entertaining travelers with our friendly, dancing robotic barista while saving them from what seems like an eternity of waiting in line for coffee,” said Henry Hu, founder, and CEO of Cafe X.

They're also not human. The robotic coffee bar employs assembly line-style robots to build your coffee orders for you, making Cafe X a player in San Francisco's automated eatery scene that's also gaining traction across the country.

 

The Trend of Robot Coffee Bars

The trend has garnered pushback for impeding on jobs that could be filled by actual humans, yet Cafe X insists it focuses on "humans working alongside technology," not replacing them, said Cafe X community manager Sam Blum. And though the baristas are robots, a living and breathing Cafe X specialist is always on-site at each store.

The venture capital backed company was founded in 2015 by Henry Hu, who received funding from The Thiel Foundation, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, to complete his venture. If you've ever avoided your usual coffee spot after realizing your favorite barista wasn't serving the counter that day, you'll probably enjoy Cafe X. The coffee station is fully automatic, meaning your dirty Chai tea A latte with non-dairy milk will appear exactly the same every time you visit it. They are also not human.

Drinking coffee has become an integral part of the daily rituals of millions around the world, and the French philosopher Voltaire believes that the 40–50 cups he drank a day inspired his genius. He even gave huge bonuses to servants who could bring him his favorite coffee beans. He probably didn't brew all the coffee himself, but he was served the coffee by someone we now call the barista. If we count back to napkin how many Starbucks baristas make coffee, we can guess that there are six full-time baristas at each location. That's 174,000 baristas, and let's say they get $ 10.59 an hour, which is the average PayScale wage paid by Starbucks. That's $ 22,112 per year, or $ 3.8 billion in labor costs per year.

There are two ways to increase earnings per share if you are not considering share buyback. The first is to increase revenues, the second is to reduce costs. Starbucks will find it increasingly difficult to increase revenues as it approaches $ 90 billion, but will not seek to cut costs with robotic baristas. The robotic coffee bar is here to stay and may be seen across many more venues across the world.

 

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