The world’s first fully autonomous, AI-powered restaurant recently opened in Southern California.
Robots cook the burgers and deep-fry the French fries at CaliExpress by Flippy, a new restaurant that opened in December. The restaurant is located at 561 E. Green Street in Pasadena.
Guests who visit the restaurant can watch the robots prepare their meals from start to finish after they place an order. Orders can also be customized, a news release said.
The restaurant came to life thanks to the partnership between Cali Group, a technology forward holding company, Miso Robotics, the creator of Flippy, the world’s first AI-powered robotic fry station, and PopID, a technology company that uses biometrics to simplify ordering and payment systems.
The restaurant’s menu consists of burgers, cheeseburgers and French fries.
“To our knowledge, this is the world’s first operating restaurant where both ordering and every single cooking process are fully automated,” John Miller, CEO of PopID, said in a statement.
“The marriage of these various technologies to create the most autonomous restaurant in the world is the culmination of years of research, development, and investment in a family of revolutionary companies.”
The company also claims that using this technology at the restaurant will nearly eliminate slippage and burns and reduce food and oil waste. The CaliExpress by Flippy kitchen could also be run by a small crew, a news release said.
The CaliExpress by Flippy location will also double as a pseudo-museum experience presented by Miso Robotics. Guests can see dancing robot arms, experimental 3D-printed artifacts, photographic displays and more.
Consumers can visit CaliExpress by Flippy by booking a reservation online, though as of Tuesday evening, the website seems to be down.
A grand opening for the restaurant is expected to occur in the near future.