In the article "China restaurant sacks robot waiters," it talks
about how robots had many flaws and could not comply to the needs of
the customers. They had great mobility but could not pour beverages or
take orders. The best purpose that they served was getting people into
the establishment. Two of the restaurants have closed that
possessed these robots. The third got rid off all of its robots except
one.
I think that this was the idea behind the creation of the waiter
robots: to get people into the restaurant and make business. The
robots were not thought through thoroughly or else many of these flaws
to their service would have been noticed and taken into consideration.
Since this did not happen, I believe that this was just a failed
attempt to modernize our society with technology that is not advanced
enough yet. Maybe someday the technology will catch up with the ideas
of the people today.
I feel though that people in power are trying to replace people
with robots to reduce the cost. If a robot is purchased and is fully
capable of doing a person’s job, it will then pay itself off
eventually. When this happens they will not need to pay the robots a
salary and will save money. These robots would take away many jobs from
people and leave many jobless. On the other hand though, it would
create jobs in the production of the robots. Things then would
eventually also be done by robots. In the end, I think that robots are
a thing of the future that have not found their place in this society
today.
"China restaurant sacks robot waiters"
Written by an 8th-grade student
Robot waiters, good or bad idea? They didn't work so well the first
time. Is it really worth time and money? They had many flaws and could
only do repetitive tasks. Should we waste money and try again? I hope
China decides to not do it again. I think they were a complete
failure. I don't know why you would make them into waiters. Humans
need to be waiters so they can communicate.
The point of a waiter is to give people their food, refill their
drinks, and take their orders. The robot can only do 1 out of 3 of
those things. If there was a programming malfunction and the robot was
carrying food, there would be a chance that it would go to the wrong
customer, drop the food, wasting supplies from that restaurant.
Written by an 8th-grade student
The "China restaurant sacks robot waiters" article states that a few
restaurants in China had bought robots that worked as waiters. Two of
the three restaurants that had done this had to close their doors due
to the poor results. The third restaurant kept one robot. The human
staff stated that the robots simply couldn't perform tasks that a
human waiter could, such as taking orders.
This could've been a big break for many companies. There are many
things these robot waiters could bring to the table (other than the
food). For example, they would draw in customers because robot waiters
are not yet the current "norm". They will also cut costs for companies
because they wouldn't have to pay the robots like they would human
waiters.
On the other hand, it might be good for the public that robot waiters
aren't yet ready. They might be good for companies, but a lot of people
would be put out of a job. At first, it might only be a few
restaurants, but over time, being a waiter might not even be a job
option for people who need some extra money. So, will you see a robot
waiter in your local diner soon? Probably not. However, they might not
be far off.
Written by an 8th-grade student
Link to Original Article: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-35980105