watch 2 Youtube videos below and the uploaded pdf file
write 300 words reading response
Provide your opinion on what you learned from these news items. In your discussion, you may include your insights on whether or not is this the best use of automation technology, and what other implications it may hold for future of fast food and other services as the technology evolves.
View From The Valley Robotics Industrial Robots
Robotics
13 Nov 2018 | 18:00 GMT
Zume, the Robotic Pizza
Company, Makes Pies Only a
Robot Could Love
But Zume’s investors have given it unicorn status
anyway
By Tekla S. Perry
13 Nov 2018 | 18:00 GMTPosted
Illustration: iStockphoto
Zume, the robotic pizza maker, is now valued at more than US $2 billion,
thanks to its latest round of investment.
, this latest infusion of funds—$375 million—came entirely from
SoftBank; and the Japanese conglomerate apparently has another $375
million at the ready should Zume need it. The valuation, in Silicon Valley
terms, makes the new company a unicorn, one of the rare breed of startups
thought to be worth over $1 billion.
According to The Wall Street
Journal
This is just wrong. Because it’s just not good pizza.
Topics Reports Blogs Multimedia Magazine Resources
Search
https://spectrum.ieee.org/blog/view-from-the-valley
https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics
https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/industrial-robots
https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics
https://spectrum.ieee.org/author/perry-tekla-s
https://www.wsj.com/articles/zume-a-food-robotics-and-logistics-startup-cooks-up-2-25-billion-valuation-in-softbank-deal-1541099560
https://spectrum.ieee.org/
, based in Mountain View, Calif., launched three years ago. The
company set out to revolutionize pizza delivery by turning pizza-making over
to robots, and then cooking the pizza in the back of delivery vans in ovens
controlled through cloud-based software. Zume has pitched van-based ovens
as a vastly more efficient model for pizza delivery than using people to make
the pizzas, cooking them in large ovens at the restaurant, and then sending
the already-cooked pizzas out with drivers. The company has also indicated
that using robots for making crusts, spreading sauce, and cutting slices can
improve quality control. And Zume hopes that, once it gets the technology
established for pizza, it will be able to adapt the systems to other food
products and sell robots instead of just pizzas.
Zume
Right now, t has a small delivery radius in Silicon Valley. I’m in it;
I often spot a Zume truck parked about a mile from my house. So, a couple of
months ago, I tried it for the first time. I invited a friend over to join my
husband and me in what we expected would be a treat.
he company
A treat it was not. We ordered two pizzas from the rather limited : the
Veggie Zupreme and the Sgt. Pepperoni. The biggest problem was the crust.
The texture and taste could best be described as cardboard. The toppings were
skimpy, particularly on the veggie; the couple of scraps of peppers and flakes
of mushrooms had no resemblance to the piles of brightly colored vegetables
pictured on the Web site. The quality of the cheese and sauce were fine; I
wouldn’t say the sauce was particularly flavorful, but it wasn’t bad.
menu
Zume’s business vision touts its ability to get pizza to your door within 20
minutes. On my first order, the app initially estimated that the delivery time
would be 27 minutes. About 15 minutes later, it provided an update: The
pizzas would arrive in another 23 minutes—for a total of 38 minutes.
Ultimately, it took closer to 50 minutes. Hint for Zume: Don’t suggest a
precision that isn’t there. Saying 27 minutes sets a certain expectation; tell me
“half an hour,” and if you’re 15 or 20 minutes late I won’t be shocked.
Customer service after the delivery was impressive, as it should be for a
startup trying to establish itself. I received a review form via email and filled it
out honestly—and therefore mostly negatively. I got a response from Zume
customer service a day later. The company refunded the charge for the
original order and gave me free pizza credits to encourage me to give Zume
another try. I did, trying the Veggie again—there were maybe a few more
vegetables, but still disappointing—along with the O.G., Zume’s version of a
basic pizza margherita. This time, the crust was a little warmer and tasted a
little less like cardboard, but it wasn’t hot and still lacked an appealing
texture. Again, the cheese and sauce were at a much higher temperature than
the crust. (Side note: This is a pizza best eaten hot hot hot; you’re definitely
not going to want to grab a slice out of the fridge and eat it cold for
breakfast.)
I engaged in a bit of troubleshooting, reheating the pies in my own oven. That
step improved the texture of the crust. But there wasn’t enough improvement
to make me want to order Zume again—not even close.
https://zumepizza.com/
https://zumepizza.com/menu
Making the startup’s pizza even less interesting to me is its pricing: The range,
from $15 for a basic cheese pizza to $25 for a combination with meat, puts
Zume’s pies at the level of the artisan pizza restaurants in Silicon Valley.
(Those pizzas, while nothing like East Coast pizza, can be really good.) This
isn’t Pizza Hut territory.
So, when I saw this month that Zume’s investors are valuing it at $2 billion, I
had to wonder exactly how much due diligence those backers did. SoftBank
CEO Masayoshi Son does own a home in what seems to be Zume’s delivery
area, so he certainly had a chance to give it a real test. What he actually thinks
of the product is anybody’s guess. There’s no accounting for taste.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and figure that perhaps he’s looking long
term, at the prospects for being the market leader in automated fast-food
production equipment—which could eventually be a multibillion-d0llar
business. But he might also want to consider that certain foods aren’t meant
to be made—or eaten—by robots.
About View From the Valley blog
blog featuring
the people, places, and passions
of the world of technologists in
Silicon Valley and its environs.
IEEE Spectrum’s
Follow @teklaperry
, EditorTekla Perry
Subscribe to RSS
Feed
Featured Jobs
Senior
Robotics Engineer
Cupertino, CA
Apple, Inc.
Robotics Engineer
Cupertino, CA
Apple, Inc.
Autonomous Systems Simulation
Architect
Cupertino, CA
Apple, Inc.
More Jobs >>
https://spectrum.ieee.org/author/perry-tekla-s
https://spectrum.ieee.org/rss/blog/view-from-the-valley/fulltext
http://jobs.ieee.org/jobs/search/results