While the entire restaurant industry is currently shifting, a certain Seattle company called Picnic now believes that the world could be ready for its very own pizza-making robot. The particular Picnic Pizza System previously stole the show during last year's regular CES technology convention which happened in Las Vegas.
The pizza robot
According to an article by WTSP, the robot was able to wow convention-goers by being able to quickly roll out about hundreds of different customized pizzas while each of them had different toppings, sizes, and being capable of making half-and-half pizzas. This was all reportedly done with good precision as well as very little food waste.
However, within the whole restaurant industry, there has actually been a stigma when it comes to automation. However, the coronavirus pandemic could be able to change this stigma according to Clayton Wood, the CEO of Picnic.
CES pizza making robot
Wood stated that there is actually a unique labor problem which involves not being able to have people working shoulder to shoulder once again in the kitchen. This results to if people want to be able to produce volumes of food like for a delivery or etc., they would then have to produce those orders really quickly and also consistently.
The tech world was reportedly ready for this particular pizza robot. It was found that the company was able to sell over 500 pizzas with only less than 1% recorded food waste at the 2020 CES that happened last year. Picnic was then named the "Best of CES" by a number of reviewers. This happened while they were not even an official vendor.
Automated pizza machine
During the past year, Picnic was able to receive quite a substantial investment. This allowed the company to be able to ramp up the production of its own commercial model. This model was then shipped out to its first customer just this week. An article by GeekWire last October noted that the company was able raise $3 million for food automation.
Wood then stated that they have received quite a number of interest coming from all over the entire food service sector. This came with both large and small customers which even included some pizza restaurants, ghost kitchens, corporate food services, food trucks, and even convenience stores.
Pizza robot startup
Ultimately, Wood also noted that timing really is everything. The company is also most satisfied that their own innovation is now helping the entire food sector as well as many of their friends in the whole restaurant industry that have reportedly been suffering from the ongoing pandemic.
Wood also stated that the robot is now not intended to take people's jobs away but rather support the restaurants as well as the workers in both the delivery and carry out. Wood said that it is actually a "co-bot" where people will still be able to work alongside this particular machine.Wood then stated that food automation is currently an up-and-coming field that is very open for innovation. Wood said that they are among the pioneers but they would love to have more company.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian Buenconsejo
