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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

self-service kiosks

After Almost 40 Years, Adam Lloyd Cohen is Bringing His Vision for Food Robots to Life

Back in college, Adam Lloyd Cohen had a vision.

It was 1985, and he was in Paris working on a documentary about ancient robots as a project during his senior year in college. After steeping himself in the history of automation during the day and dining on French cuisine at night, he began to think about how we might use robots to make food.

“The combination of good food and making a film on robotics stimulated the idea that, ‘hey wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow democratize access to very high-quality food?'” Cohen told me in a recent interview. “And there seemed to be no way to do that except with automation.”

But it was still the eighties, and robotics were a far cry from the AI-powered machines of today, so when Cohen graduated, he decided to set aside his vision of the future and get a job.

Still, as he navigated what would become a successful career in the 3D printing industry that included founding and selling a company, Cohen never forgot his idea about food automation and, by 2018, he decided it was time to give it a try.

“I started to hear about people working in this area, and I realized, well, the time has come.”

And so he got to work, eventually building a beta prototype of a food-making robot that he and his new company Now Cuisine trialed in late 2020. That trial helped him secure a deal with a popular burrito chain in Texas called Freebirds World Burrito, announced today, to run a three-month pilot with six new automated robotic kiosks called Takeout Stations. The robots will be deployed in different office buildings and multifamily housing units throughout Dallas.

The idea behind putting automated fresh-food-making kiosks in different locations goes back to Cohen’s original vision of making good food accessible through automation. It’s a vision his company now calls (and has trademarked) ‘Distributed Dining’.

From the announcement:

Through its vision of Distributed Dining, Now Cuisine seeks to democratize access to delicious, healthful, affordable food, making it ubiquitous and always nearby: wherever people live, work, and play. Through a connected network of Takeout Stations, Now Cuisine is working to improve nutrition, shrink food deserts, save precious time, and reduce waste, traffic, and emissions.

The new generation robotic kiosks will operate autonomously and assemble up to three dozen bowls per day, each taking about two minutes to assemble. They’ll also make a lot more than burrito bowls.

“There are all sorts of things we could be doing with the next generation,” said Cohen. “Certainly burrito bowls are of great interest, but grain bowls are fantastic. There’s potential for rice bowls, noodle bowls, and pokey bowls.”

But before the pilot program – and the rest of this vision for the future – can take place, Now Cuisine has to raise money to build the robots. To do that, Cohen is looking at venture capital, but he’s also considering crowdfunding.

“I’m intrigued by crowdfunding,” said Cohen. “Especially given the success some other folks have had in this space. But I’m going to start with more conventional approaches.”

Cohen is confident he can raise funds since he’s done it before. “For my last company, I raised about $17 million.”

Once funded, Cohen believes that it will take about ten months until the first Takeout Stations are deployed. The plan is to build the first six or so robots by hand so the engineering team can learn and stabilize the design.

From there, “the idea is to transition it to a contract manufacturer to make a lot of them,” said Cohen.

With Cohen’s long-term plan falling into place, he’s closer than ever to achieving the vision he first had while making a documentary in Paris about the future of robots.

Speaking of the documentary, whatever happened to it?

“I didn’t have enough money to finish it,” said Cohen.

Now a successful entrepreneur and no longer an aspiring documentarian, Cohen hopes for a different outcome as he works to build the future of democratized, automated food production he first envisioned had almost four decades ago in Paris.

Panasonic and PopID Aim to Make Paying With Your Face the Norm at Restaurants

Using facial recognition to order and pay for food has long been an intriguing concept for restaurants, albeit one that comes with a bit of a creep factor. But now that the pandemic has accelerated the need for contactless systems in restaurants, it may become more widespread.

Case in point: this week, Panasonic and Cali Group’s PopID announced a new partnership that lets restaurant customers pay with their faces at drive-thrus and kiosks. PopID’s technology, which includes its PopPay “wallet,” will be integrated into Panasonic’s ClearConnect Kiosk, which offers restaurants the hardware, software, and UI/UX design needed to install self-order kiosks at restaurants. The two companies will also jointly integrate PopPay at drive-thru systems.

Once customers register for a PopID account, they can use PopPay at any restaurant that accepts the technology. They’ll be able to view past orders and loyalty points, reorder items, and, of course, pay for their meals without the need for human interaction. You can watch a quick explainer video here.

Facial recognition at fast-casual and QSR restaurants has been slowly gaining momentum over the last couple years. Bite, which works with ToGo’s and Noodles World Kitchen, among other restaurants, also offers facial recognition in its kiosks. Some restaurants, namely Dallas-TX Malibu Poke, have offered face recognition for years.

PopID’s tech is already in a number of restaurants, including Cali Group-owned CaliBurger, Bojangles, and Dairi-O. The Panasonic partnership is meant to expand the number of PopID deployments.

The flip side, of course, is that users have to be comfortable with giving away their face data in order to use the this convenient, socially distanced form of ordering and payments. Biometric data remains a controversial topic and comes with its fair share of security and privacy concerns. That means restaurants and tech companies deploying these systems have a responsibility to communicate with customers about how they use the data — and how well they protect it.

In a pandemic-stricken world, some of these systems actually do more than let customers order and pay for meals. Cali Burger recently launched a modified system (using PopID) that can, as well as processing ordering and payments, take staff and guests’ temperatures. A handful of restaurants, including Cali Burger, are using this feature, and if the sensors detect someone has a fever, that person is not allowed to enter the building. 

So while privacy concerns will always be a risk with facial recognition, the ability of these kiosks to actually ensure the safety of guests and staff could sway more folks to hand over their personal data. At the very least, the privacy tradeoff may seem more worth it. 

Presto Is Giving Away Free Kiosks to Restaurants in a Bid to Keep the Front of House Relevant

Presto this week joins the growing list of companies offering restaurants deals on hardware and software solutions geared towards the off-premises model most businesses now have to employ to stay alive. In an email sent to The Spoon, the company said it is making its Presto Kiosk product “absolutely free” to restaurants. 

Presto, which counts Denny’s, Outback Steakhouse, and Applebee’s among its clients, has up to now made a name for itself through products designed for the restaurant dining room, from wearable technology for servers to tabletop order and pay terminals for guests. However, with most dining rooms shut down now in an effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19, it makes sense Presto is now promoting its self-service kiosk, which is the most to-go friendly option of all its products.

Like other kiosks, Presto’s is a standalone device guests can use to browse a restaurant menu and order and pay for their items. The kiosk software integrates with a restaurant’s main POS system and, according to the company email, “enables guests to order and pay safely without requiring any interaction with the restaurant staff.”

The company says it is waiving the integration and deployment costs of these kiosks, which restaurants can use “without any contractual obligations,” and that the devices can be set up and running in a matter of days. Existing presto customers who use the company’s tabletop terminals will have access to a software update that can repurpose the devices for taking to-go orders.

The question is whether it will be enough to help Presto keep its footing in a restaurant industry that suddenly finds itself with no dine-in guests, no servers, and really no front of house at all. Presto doesn’t yet offer any devices geared towards delivery or drive-thru orders, so highlighting its kiosk option is the company’s one way to stay relevant in this era of social distancing.

Plus, takeout is starting to look a little risky as an order channel. Earlier this week, Starbucks announced it was getting rid of takeout as an option because of the amount of foot traffic it was causing in the store. In an even more drastic move, McDonald’s completely shuttered all its U.K. restaurants as well as 50 locations in the U.S. Wendy’s also discontinued takeout services this week. Since these massive chains tend to set the standards everyone else follows, it could be a matter of just days before other restaurant chains start getting rid of takeout options.

On the other hand, a device that enables contactless to-go orders might be the only thing saving some restaurants who have no drive-thru option and may not be able to pay Grubhub its 30 percent commission fee for each order. 

Taco Bell to Give Its Stores a ‘Tech-Forward’ Facelift, Launches Veggie Mode for Kiosks

Like many quick-service and fast-casual chains these days, Taco Bell is responding to the demand for digital and off-premises orders in part by revamping its physical locations. Case in point: Today, the chain unveiled plans to build out new stores under its Cantina concept as well as convert some traditional Taco Bell locations into Cantinas. 

The Cantina is Taco Bell’s somewhat more upscale concept the chain has opened around urban areas over the last few years. To be clear: the Cantina format is still quick-service, just a higher-end version that often features alcohol and includes new technologies like self-order kiosks and digital menu boards.

The company said today it will open its “most technology-forward Taco Bell”  in fall of 2020 in NYC’s Times Square. The press release is vague on details, however, stating only that “the upcoming New York Cantina will utilize new digital features that not only allows for a smooth ordering experience but showcases digital moments throughout the restaurant like never before.”

I’m intrigued as to whether “technology-forward” means the new Times Square store will simply have more of the brand’s existing restaurant tech or if Taco Bell has something up its sleeve it hasn’t yet revealed to the general public. After all, in-store kiosks, mobile order capabilities, pickup shelves, and digital boards are fast becoming the standard not just in Taco Bell locations but across most major QSRs.

Whatever it means, Taco Bell is clearly trying to go after a new audience with the store format that in some ways feels like the Sweetgreen of traditional fast food.

Taco Bell will also convert three of its traditional restaurants into Cantinas to test the concept in more suburban areas. After a period of evaluation, Taco Bell will expand the Cantina concept to other traditional locations.  

Taco Bell has in the meantime also announced a new feature for its self-order kiosks called Veggie Mode. According to an email sent to The Spoon, the function is essentially a way for users to filter menu options so they don’t see any meat-based meals among their selections. Users simply slide a button on the kiosk’s touchscreen to activate Veggie Mode. 

The new features is part of Taco Bell’s ongoing push to appeal to vegetarians or those simply wanting to cut down on the amount of meat they consume. The Veggie Mode feature will be available starting March 12 at Taco Bell kiosks across the U.S., and presumably included in the ones that launch with the new and revamped stores the chain has planned for 2020.

Survey: Two-thirds of Restaurant Operators Are Banking on More Automation for the Future

Roughly 65 percent of restaurant franchisees believe increased automation and a more widespread use of mobile apps for ordering will greatly impact the restaurant industry in the future, according to TD Bank’s recent Restaurant Franchise Finance Group survey data emailed to The Spoon.

The survey polled a select group of restaurant owners, operators, and executives from multi-unit restaurant companies, both independent and franchised, at the 2019 Restaurant Finance & Development Conference that took place in Las Vegas this past November. 

Among the survey’s findings, nearly two-thirds of respondents believe more automation and mobile loyalty apps will “alter the restaurant landscape.” The survey specifically mentions self-service kiosks and mobile apps as technologies driving this change. In a statement, Mark Wasilefsky, Head of the Restaurant Franchise Finance Group at TD Bank, deemed technologies like self-order kiosks “necessary to compete” for restaurants.

One doesn’t have to look far to see such technologies already been widely implemented in restaurants, particularly QSRs and fast-casual chains. Shake Shack, Dunkin’, Sweetgreen, and many others already include kiosks as an option for customers when ordering. Many more in addition to those chains offer loyalty programs through their own mobile apps.

Wasilefsky noted that “Industry leaders expect these technologies to grow in popularity, driving a ‘trickle-down’ effect, where smaller local and regional chains consider adopting these offerings to meet diners’ preferences.”

Mobile apps are, of course, a key part of any delivery strategy these days — and there are plenty of delivery strategies now. In TD’s survey, 85 percent of respondents said they had a delivery strategy, up 10 percent from 2019. Fifty-two percent said delivery comprises “up to” 10 percent of their overall sales, while 20 percent said delivery accounts for more than 20 percent of their sales.

That number will keep rising, thanks in no small part to third-party providers like Uber Eats and DoorDash, who by some accounts will make up 70 percent of restaurant deliveries by 2022. Wasilefsky noted that the cost of delivery is decreasing as “third-party providers become more efficient and larger operators are able to negotiate more favorable deals, there is tremendous potential for operators to use delivery to account for a larger percentage of their businesses,” Wasilefsky said.

Not talked about in the survey, however, is third-party delivery services’ impact on smaller restaurants and the growing litany of controversies and complaints the businesses have with these services. Multi-unit restaurants like the ones polled for TD’s survey tend to have more leverage (aka money) when it comes to negotiating contracts with the DoorDashes and Grubhub’s of the world. As for the rest of the industry, including the mom-and-pop shops with shallower pockets and less negotiating power, the impact of automation and mobile ordering seems a little more up for question at the moment.

Starbucks’ Chinese Competitor Luckin to Launch IoT-powered Self-service Coffee Machines

Luckin, one of China’s largest coffee chains, announced this week in a press release two new offerings aimed at getting coffee to consumers as quickly and conveniently as possible: the Luckin Coffee EXPRESS smart unmanned coffee machine and the Luckin Pop Mini smart vending machine. Both machines are part of Luckin’s push further into the world of self-service locations, what the company calls “the unmanned retail market” in an effort to reach more customers and stay competitive with its chief rival, Starbucks.

These unmanned terminals will be in office buildings, college campuses, bus terminals, gas stations, highway service stations, and residential communities, according to the press release. Though Luckin hasn’t specifically said what for, IoT and facial recognition will be used, most likely to speed up the ordering process. 

Of course finding faster, easier ways to get coffee to customers is a major priority right now for chains. Starbucks opened an Express store in Beijing last year that focuses specifically on delivery and pickup orders. It is also operating ghost kitchens in China in collaboration with Alibaba’s Heme supermarkets. 

In the U.S., both Briggo and CafeX have self-service coffee kiosks manned by robots at airports around the country (though it’s worth noting that CafeX just shuttered all three of its downtown San Francisco locations). Meanwhile, a company called Bandit operates a mobile-order-only cafe in Manhattan, where customers order ahead via the Bandit app and simply pick their drink up when it’s ready. 

Luckin, which has so far focused heavily on delivery and pickup order formats, doesn’t yet have any locations in the U.S. For now, its focus seems to be expanding further across China and in doing so competing with Starbucks. Luckin’s self-operated stores numbered 4,507 by the end of 2019, according to a press release. Starbucks, meanwhile, has tried self-service vending machines in the past, a concept that never took off and is no longer being promoted.

Whether Luckin’s new self-service offerings prompt Starbucks to double-down on its self-service efforts again remains to be seen. The Seattle-based coffee retailer has already said it plans to open more express stores in high-traffic areas in China. That probably includes airports, bus terminals, and office parks — the very same places Luckin is placing its self-service machines. 

Report: 60 Percent of Restaurant Orders Are Now Off-Premises

Off-premises dining — that is, delivery, takeout, and drive-thru orders — now accounts for 60 percent of restaurant occasions, according to a new report developed by Technomic for the National Restaurant Association. The report, which was released yesterday and digs into the factors driving the demand for off-premises orders, also notes that this trend will continue to grow and that restaurant operators who don’t yet have a strategy for off premises in place “risk being left behind.”

For consumers, drive-thru topped the list of the types of off-premises dining consumers use, with 92 percent surveyed saying they ordered via that channel at least once per month. Takeout was next, at 90 percent, followed by restaurant delivery at 79 percent and delivery via third parties (e.g., DoorDash, Grubhub, etc.) at 53 percent.

Restaurant operators are responding with more of these channels, though what they offer the most doesn’t align exactly with what consumers use. Among those restaurant surveyed, 93 percent offer takeout, followed by 66 percent doing third-party delivery, 55 percent with their own delivery operations, and 20 percent offering drive-thru.

The difference in numbers makes sense, though. For example, most non-QSR restaurants (think Olive Garden or Outback) wouldn’t have a delivery window. And more restaurants embrace third-party delivery because, for now at least, it’s cheaper to let, say, Grubhub handle the logistics and actual couriers involved in getting food from restaurant to customer.

All that said, The Association notes that operators are “not keeping up with consumer demand for technology,” which is at the heart of most of these sales channels. Twenty-nine percent of operators said they are “lagging the industry,” citing things like high costs or not enough demand to justify the cost. There’s also the matter of getting both staff and customers on board with new technologies. For example, will customers actually use a self-service kiosk if it’s installed in the front of house?

Well, that depends on the kiosk. Or digital menu board. Or mobile app. Generally speaking, the easier and more intuitive it is to use the technology, the more people are likely to use it, which is one of the reasons voice tech is becoming known in the restaurant industry as a promising solution, particularly in the drive-thru. However, some of these more advanced technologies are also some of the least prevalent, according to the report: “More advanced technologies that operators report as being most impactful to their business—location intelligence, geofencing and virtual assistants used for voice ordering—are also the least available technologies that operators currently have in place.”

Nonetheless, as the report makes clear and as we discuss often here at The Spoon, tech is the driving force behind the movement towards off-premises dining, and also the critical means by which restaurants can serve more of these customers and improve their tools. Over the next year, that 60 percent of off-premises orders will only grow. Restaurants must ensure they have the right elements in place to help them climb with it.

Dunkin’ Hints at Its Future With Self-Service Kiosk Expansion

Dunkin’s westward expansion of its next-generation concept stores continues, with news that the Quincey, MA-based chain is testing out self-service kiosks at full-service locations in California.

The company highlighted this at the end of last week when it opened its 100th next-gen store in the state of California. Like the other Dunkin’ concept stores, this one features faster drive-thru service for mobile orders and a sizable roundup of cold-brew coffees on tap, and self-service kiosks, which are fast becoming less “concept” in QSRs and more the expected norm.

The new store, in Santa Ana, is the ninth such Dunkin’ location to test these touchscreen kiosks, which resemble those of McDonald’s in look and feel. Dunkin’s entire menu is available on these kiosks, which are placed inside the store and process ordering and payments, including payment via the Dunkin’ loyalty program. Also like McDonald’s system, a digital board by the pickup counter displays each order number and whether it’s in progress or ready to be collected by the customer.

While the kiosk itself is noteworthy, it’s what Dunkin’ will do with the device that matters more. Nation’s Restaurant News, who has some nice photos of the kiosks, noted that the kiosks allow guests to customize their drinks and food. NRN didn’t go into exhaustive detail about the level of customization, but Dunkin’s system will definitely have to go deeper than simply asking whether a guest wants a shot of vanilla flavoring in their latte (a common question if you order a latte at a QSR). As more restaurant chains adopt these kiosks and as more customers order and pay through rewards programs that store profile information and preferences, kiosks will have to get smarter about what they’re enabling in terms of making an order more personal and doing so faster.

McDonald’s set the bar high earlier this year when it acquired Dynamic Yield, whose “decision technology” uses AI to recommend items based on time of day, weather, a customer’s order history, and trending menu items, among other things.

Dunkin’ hasn’t yet made any acquisition announcements of its own, though around the time it launched its first next-gen store and dropped the “donuts” out of its name, Wired pointed out that the via the company’s Innovation Lab, “facial- and voice-recognition are on Dunkin’s radar,” and that the chain was also looking at AI. So it would be in no way surprising if we soon get news that Dunkin’ is making bigger moves towards AI-powered recommendations and personalization.

Shake Shack Gives Self-Service Kiosks a Second Chance

A little over a year ago, Shake Shack opened its first-ever location powered by self-service kiosks in the East Village. At the restaurant, all ordering and payments were made through digital kiosks — no human intervention necessary.

Except human intervention actually was totally necessary. In a matter of months, customers practically declared mutiny and Shake Shack abandoned the concept. “The kiosks are also supposed to make things go quicker, but the wait is even longer,” one commenter noted.

But it seems the Danny Meyer-backed chain is giving the concept another go. This week Shake Shack announced it will expand its kiosk locations; but with some differences from the pilot.

Most notably, the selected stores will feature a more hybrid concept, offering both cashiers and kiosks. This combo is a wise move on Shake Shack’s part, since kiosks still cause a fair share of confusion and there are many who would benefit more from interacting with an actual person. Guests will also be able to use cash if they prefer, as the card-only payments were a point of grief with the original kiosk-concept location. Right now, Shake Shack currently has five locations that offer this hybrid kiosk-human structure, and plans to open more in areas like San Francisco and Seattle, where labor costs run especially high.

And labor costs will continue to be an issue. On its second-quarter earnings call, Shake Shack reported that those increased year over year by 26.3 percent, partially driven by increases to minimum wage.

That’s where the kiosks come in: “We are learning how the kiosk experience changes the flow in the front-house, the extent to which we are back to speed at service, kitchen throughput, how it best enhances the guest experience, its ability to deliver labor leverage in the future and how ordering behavior may be impacted,” said CEO Randy Garutti.

Automation in quick-service restaurants is becoming more and more commonplace, to make an understatement — and it’s not hard to see why. Analysts say that kiosks could help McDonald’s recoup $2.7 billion in sales. The fast food leader said it plans to add kiosks to 1,000 stores every quarter for the next two years.

And kiosks were all the rage at this year’s National Restaurant Association show, which had products from 365 Retail Markets, Adusa Inc., and Apex. And those are just the first three on the alphabetized list.

Shake Shack stands a somewhat better chance of succeeding with kiosks this time around. That’s partly because they’re still accepting cash and party because people’s perception towards automation has shifted since the first iteration. Consumers in general are more comfortable with kiosk interfaces in 2018 than ever before, whether at the airport or eating lunch.

However, it’s best not to paint too rosy a future at the moment. Shake Shack and others may be touting an ideal solution with these kiosk-cashier hybrid locations, but there are no significant numbers yet on how well the locations will perform. And with labor costs continuing to rise, the pressure to automate more and more restaurant operations will increase. Understanding when and where to do that — and when and where not to — will be key to any fast-casual chain’s success.

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