Fully automated coffee shop opened in San Francisco

Cafe X - the so-called new coffee house, which opened recently in San Francisco. Here visitors are engaged in automation. The coffee house is very small, but its feature, robots and automation, attracts a large number of visitors. The robot accepts orders on the smartphone, although you can use the local terminal. Prepares all the robot, gives the client an order - also a robot. This cafe looks like a hybrid of a vending machine and a coffee shop. Coffee is prepared using two WMF coffee machines. Each of the devices can prepare seven drinks of various types, and it is possible to choose one of three types of coffee.

If desired, milk or syrups can be added to your drink. The cost of one drink is $ 2-3, which, in principle, is not too expensive for this region. The coffee house is called the same as the company that created it. Cafe X is a startup that has already received $ 5 million from investors. The companies that provided the funds are The Thiel Foundation, Social Capital, Khosla Ventures, Jason Calacanis, and Felicis Ventures. Thanks to investment Cafe X opened in Hong Kong. Here, a robotic coffee shop gives customers about 1,000 cups of coffee a week.


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Robotic coffee houses are not unique to San Francisco. Here also works another company that creates kiosks of a similar design. Company Eastsa is called, however, it serves not coffee, but quinoa is a special kind of cereal. The goal of this company is to provide the fastest and most efficient customer service.

As for the company Cafe X, then it has similar goals . “If you need really good coffee, you often have to wait a long time, if you are in a hurry, this is a problem,” says company founder Henry Hu. "We believe that by automating the process, by allowing customers to use mobile devices for ordering, you can quickly serve visitors by preparing excellent coffee for them."

When the order is ready, Cafe X sends a four-digit text message to the customer. This is the confirmation code of receipt of the order, which must be entered in the terminal kiosk. If everything is correct, the robotic arm (produced by Mitsubishi) will remove the glass from the heated stand and give it to the customer by placing it on the shelf. From here you can pick up a cup and enjoy your drink to the fullest.

The code is necessary in order to eliminate the deception of the robot. The advantage of this type of service is that the barista robot will always hear its client and never confuse anything. In addition, a miniature coffee shop will not allow you to pick up someone else's cup with a latte or another coffee drink.


By the way, the robot will not wait forever - if the client does not pick up his coffee within six minutes, the drink will be recycled. Moreover, if the client does appear later, he will be given a free new drink. In the process of making an order, the robot analyzes the location of the client. So, first of all, orders are accepted and given to customers who are nearby. As for a few minutes of waiting and eight stands with heating, then, according to the developers, they are always enough. Customers get everything on time and without crowds, even in Hong Kong. At one o'clock the barista robot prepares 120 drinks - this is the maximum, the robot is not able to cook faster.

A big plus of the robot is that if you get good coffee from it today, you can taste the same drink a year later. In a cafe where people work barista, it will not work. Today, baristas can have excellent coffee, tomorrow - worse, and a year later - a person who does not know how to make coffee will take his place. Everything is relative, but in most cases it is. In addition, the barista robot does not need to pay wages, the coffee shop can be placed on a relatively small area.

Robots are used not only in coffee shops, but also in restaurants, bars and cafes. True, to keep such robots, as it turned out , is not too profitable. For example, in China, several robotic restaurants have closed. The problem is that such robots have very limited functionality. But the cost of an average quality waiter robot is about 8 thousand US dollars. Plus, you need to take into account the several hundred dollars a month needed for maintenance and repair. Back in 2015, 170 robots were put up for sale on Taobao, but none of them was purchased.