Chipotle has a new robot called Autocado with one main task: peeling avocados. The prototype machine “cuts, pits and peels avocados” by the box before workers mash them into guacamole. Chipotle describes the process as using cobots (collaborative robots).
The company says the robot, which is being tested at a store at 20972 Magnolia St. in Huntington Beach, Calif., will free up employees for other tasks. The “size-independent” Autocado machine can peel and pit an avocado in 26 seconds, according to Chipotle.
Chipotle says it invested money from a $100 million venture capital fund in the two companies it partnered with to develop the two new systems – Vebu for the Autocado and Hyphen, which helped develop the new Augmented Makeline.
This Makeline device, currently being tested at a store in Corona del Mar, California (3050 East Coast Hwy), “uses automated technology to prepare bowls and salads” for customers in a line below the usual prep area. The company says that “approximately 65 percent of all Chipotle's digital orders are bowls or salads.” (My sincere condolences to those customers whose favorite burrito bowl-preparing employee has a heavy guacamole hand—it'll still cost extra.)