
McDonald’s ex-CEO: $15/hr minimum wage will unleash the robot rebellion - Jerry2
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/05/mcdonalds-ex-ceo-15hr-minimum-wage-will-unleash-the-robot-rebellion/
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joezydeco
I was at the very same restaurant show this week as Rensi mentions in the
article.

The only robot he could have possibly have been referring to was a Baxter
robot that Middleby Corp set up as an attention-getting gimmick. It was not an
actual product for sale. You can see for yourself here.

[https://twitter.com/WeRRestaurants/status/605484681245499393](https://twitter.com/WeRRestaurants/status/605484681245499393)

It was also at the show last year:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPwjG-
CnLgA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPwjG-CnLgA)

Automated kitchen technology is way more primitive than this...for multiple
reasons.

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tzm
Asia is far ahead of the game..
[http://www.parentherald.com/articles/42018/20160508/artifici...](http://www.parentherald.com/articles/42018/20160508/artificial-
intelligence-invades-fast-food-how-ai-technology-could-change-way-humans-
dine.htm)

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dmode
Nice fear mongering from ex-CEO. We all know that robots will be here
regardless of what the minimum wage is.

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superobserver
I'd rather see forward-looking companies replace their CEO's with AI.

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aexaey
"Robot rebellion" in fast-food industry has already quietly happened. Those
robots are called "vending machine".

There is even a moderately successful fast-food chain in the Netherlands that
have fully embraced this "rebellion" some 70 years ago, and they are still
going strong [1].

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEBO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEBO)

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Tempest1981
Our local Chipotle has such inconsistent quality, I would welcome our robot
overlords. Last time they put on double the normal amount of sour cream...
tasted like burrito soup.

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mtgx
If robots are worth it to replace $15/h workers in fast food stores, then they
would've been worth it to replace $8/h workers 5 years from now (or less).

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ComputerGuru
Technology gets cheaper (and more advanced/capable) over time.

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nitwit005
McDonnalds is paying even higher costs than that in other countries and hasn't
done it.

We have fully automated pizza making machines, but you still see plenty of
people in pizza shops. The economics clearly don't work out in favor of full
automation at the moment.

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pm24601
CEOs have been replacing workers with machines since the start of the
industrial revolution. Calling the machines "robots" is just a different label
for the same-old-same-old.

P.S. they have also been crying about the minimum wage as a "job destroyer"
since it was introduced a century ago.

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Aaargh20318
Good, this means that fewer people have to work, which should be humanity's
goal. I don't get this fetish with working. We should decouple labor from
income and try to get rid of as many jobs as possible.

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lujim
If you decouple labor (or work, productivity, whatever) from income how do we
know who gets what? I can only speak for myself but I wouldn't want to live
only at the bare minimum UBI stipend.

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Aaargh20318
> If you decouple labor (or work, productivity, whatever) from income how do
> we know who gets what?

It's already mostly decoupled anyway. The 1% don't actually perform any labour
yet they get most of the money created by people who actually do the work. The
only thing I'm proposing is a better distribution of wealth and free time.

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VOYD
People still "eat" at McD's?

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mdrzn
Now more than ever it seems [http://www.ibtimes.com/mcdonalds-corporation-
mcd-q1-2016-pro...](http://www.ibtimes.com/mcdonalds-corporation-
mcd-q1-2016-profit-expected-rise-revenue-projected-drop-2357882)

