The Glade 4.0

When I was in fifth grade, (waaaaay back in 1991, lol), our teacher told our class that we better get a good college education because by the time we would join the workforce, min wage jobs at McDonald's would cease to exist.
She said that technology was advancing at such a rate that by the time we became adults, McDonald's would have kiosks where you just pressed a few buttons and your food would automatically be cooked and dispensed without human intervention.

Where is that technology and why hasn't it been developed yet?

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Because they can't pay robots enough to work at McDs.

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Holy shitsnacks!

They're in the same alternate universe as my flying car.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Yeah, but a machine that cranks out burgers and fries seems a lot closer to a possibility than a flying car....

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

It's not a matter of "close to possible." It's just cheaper to hire high school dropouts to work a grill than it is to hire college graduates to design an automated McDonald's. Hell, the technology to have a fully automated McDonald's existed back when you were in fifth grade, your teacher just didn't know it.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

The thing about flying cars is that we already have them. They're called helicopters.

It's easy as **** to automate the hamburger-making process. You know why we don't? Because people need jobs.

It's not a matter of technology being able/unable; its a matter of people needing to make money to buy things they don't need.

No. Its because people are still cheaper than machines for this sort of thing.

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Holy shitsnacks!

The technology is being suppressed by the government to keep the young people in minimum wage jobs and out of trouble. Problem is, the seniors are getting a lot of them because they have 50 years job experience.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I think you're missing the human element here. Automatic grocery checkouts were ill received. People felt they weren't saving money, just being required to do the job of someone else without tangible benefit. The automation process not only has to be cheaper but significantly so that it's worth it to the user that youve taken away their service.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Also working in retail ringing things up, I've realized how nice it is to be waited on after a long day.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Automatic checkout works for < 10 items. Any more than that, and its just a hassle.

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Holy shitsnacks!

We could, technologically speaking, replace the "front end" people at Mc Donalds with a self order system. There are several reasons we don't. One of them is that people would howl that you are taking away their service.

Also if they did, do you think prices would go down or would those savings disappear.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I'd be 1000% behind a self order system.

Then I wouldn't have to deal with the barely understandable person of non-english speaking descent ever again, and my order would have a greater shot at being correct.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Yes, but then you'd be stuck behind a line twice as long while you waited for all of the non-reading people to try and figure out how to press the buttons to place their order.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

We have this fantastic technology where we can put a picture on a button instead of a word.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

No way! For realz??

Yeah, that would work for like 80% of people, and the other 20% would hold the line back by not being able to figure out how to ask for no onions and no pickles but add extra mayo and put some bacon on it and I know the meal comes with fries and a soda but can I substitute that for a small milkshake and a baked potato?? Oh, and that's my first order. For my second and third orders.....

I don't mind ringing up my own groceries at the grocery store, but I almost never do it because the line is too long because people take forEVER to figure out how to work the thing. When I do get the chance to use it, it takes me longer than it should because as soon as I take the groceries off the tiny little stand to put them in the cart, the machine complains about it...and I have to press a few buttons before it will let me continue ringing up grocery items. It's made for ringing up 10 or so items only that you leave in the bag on the weight-sensitive counter until after you've paid for it.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

They had a line of burger places that had this decades ago - they went out of business because people didn't like to eat food that was made by a factory.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Actually, the concept is more than a century old, and was called an Automat. Although there humans made the food that went into the vending machines, I don't think robot chef Automats will catch on if human chef Automats are dead.

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

Everything comes plain and you put your own stuff on it. Bam. Done.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

In the UNLV student union they have a burger place. you go up to a monitor, build your burger. bun, bread, cheese, toppings, etc. and then you go up to the monobrowed lady* (i think its a lady) and give her your money (the food may actually be free, the money may just be to get her to stay away from said food). A few minutes later one of the burger builders brings you your order.

*This is not a slight on fast food workers, but holy cow this woman working the burger place is scary beyond reason.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

I have to make my OWN sandwich? F that, what is this, the middle ages? I don't even like subway because I have to tell them every single little thing. I'd much rather just bark a number. THREE!

I want to 3-D print my sandwich out of my computer's CD-ROM drive. I've wanted to get food from there ever since I was young.

You're an EE. Get on that.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

don't they already have that in some jack-in-the-boxes?