Tuesday, October 4, 2022

🍕 Axios Finish Line: Future of pizza

Photo: Rosey the robot | Tuesday, October 04, 2022
 
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Axios Finish Line
By Mike Allen, Erica Pandey and Jim VandeHei ·Oct 04, 2022
Oct 04, 2022

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  • Smart Brevity™ count: 316 words ... < 1½ min.
 
 
1 big thing: Disrupting pizza

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

 

Making a pizza with a robot is harder than it sounds. So several startups are turning to artificial intelligence to try to churn out pies faster — and cheaper — than humans.

  • Why it matters: Robots are flipping burgers, frying chips, brewing coffee. But pizza could be the slice of the food business where automation makes its biggest mark, Jennifer A. Kingson writes for Axios What's Next.

Top engineering minds are building contraptions that can stretch dough, slap on sauce, and sprinkle cheese and toppings without human intervention.

  • Stellar Pizza, founded by a former SpaceX rocket scientist, will open this month in L.A., with a fleet of trucks staffed by robotic pizza chefs + human drivers.
  • PizzaHQ in New Jersey has converted a traditional pizzeria into a robotic one, with plans to expand.
  • Picnic Works is a tech company that leases the "Picnic Pizza Station" — a modular assembly line that can make up to 100 pizzas an hour under the supervision of one human attendant.
A robot assembles pies at PizzaHQ, which uses a Picnic Works machine. Photo: PizzaHQ

"Nobody in food service has enough workers," says Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic Works, whose machines have been used by Domino's, SeaWorld, and Chartwells, the school cafeteria vendor.

  • Plus, robots can save money: Cheese is "the most expensive ingredient on the pizza" as well as "the most over-topped" — with workers typically slapping on 40% more than prescribed, Wood said.

Robo-pizza joints are also banking on a "pizzatainment" factor to goose sales — it's fun to watch the robot.

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2. 🤖 At your service
Photo: Nathan Papes/Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader via Reuters

After a robot makes your pizza, another droid can deliver it.

  • This is Rosey, waiting tables at Archie's Italian Eatery in Springfield, Mo.
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Thank you to Patricia Guadalupe for copy editing tonight's Finish Line.

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