Chipotle Installs Robot Workers at Two California Locations

When former chef Steve Ells started Chipotle Mexican Grill in Denver back in 1993, he talked fair prices, responsibly sourced meat and respect for the land. He probably never envisioned robots working in the kitchen. The fast food (or is it fast casual?) chain is rolling out what it calls "cobots" or "collaborative robots" at two locations in Southern California. One helps make guacamole and the other conveys your plate along the counter, dropping in beans and cheese along the way.

The "Autocado" machine is installed at a Chipotle in Huntington Beach and cuts, cores and peels avocados before a human mashes them up into guacamole. The "Automated Makeline" is at a store in Corona Del Mar. The locations were chosen for their proximity to corporate headquarters and the chain's restaurant support center in Newport Beach. The chain moved to Orange County in 2018 when Brian Niccol took over as CEO and relocated headquarters closer to his home. When Niccol left for Starbucks earlier this year, that company provided him a private jet for the commute to their Seattle HQ.

Chipotle is an investor in both of the California-based robotics companies. The avocado device was custom built for Chipotle by Vebu of El Segundo. Employees dump an entire 25-pound case of fruit into the machine, which is a little bigger than one of those delivery driver robots. Press a button and a big bowl of ready-to-mash avocado comes out of the bottom. The company also makes Airwai , a robotic airport cart that drives itself out onto the tarmac to clean the roadway and retrieve equipment.

The Augmented Makeline was created by Hyphen of San Jose. The machine uses sensors, LiDAR, and vision systems to plate any combination of salad or bowl meal. The company founders are veterans of Instacart, Tesla and SpaceX. Their CEO was awarded the first-ever permit for a robotic restaurant in the U.S.