A McDonalds has begun testing robotic staff as a way of seeing how the restaurant chain could go fully automated.
The test was carried out in Shanghai using robots to deliver meals to customers and collect food trays.
The age of robotics and AI is truly here and that's very apparent, as it's arrived in McDonalds. Yup, the major food chain has begin testing robotic staff in its actual restaurants.
The Shanghai McDonalds was the home of Keenon Robotics machines, which went to work serving customers this week.
The bots covered a host of tasks, from greeting and providing information, cleaning, to delivering food to customers, and even collecting trays.
How will robots work at McDonalds?
While this was a test, the future of robots in restaurants could look similar to this setup. The idea is to go fully automated with a single location no longer requiring many human staff at all.
From front end human interactions with service to back end kitchen staff cooking the food, McDonalds is looking into making it all robot run.
The reality is that this was very much a test and the idea that this could work as a restaurant, at this early stage, is still a reach.
While robots running restaurants is still years away, this could sign us edging that much closer to humanoid robots working alongside people in the near future.
The androids serving customers certain look capable, while the wheel based screen-toting bots appear far more fun.
What all this means for jobs, the economy and our future is a far bigger question that this burger based trial can't answer right now.
