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Comment by forgotmyoldacc | Hacker News Reader

I'm skeptical that Miso Robotics can actually deliver a useful product that outperforms or matches human labor at the same price point. They don't show clear videos of what exactly the robot is capable of, and keep buying Instagram ads to invest in their company.

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White Castle already ran a pilot with the Miso 1 and then the Miso 2. It seems they see value. Maybe the tasks are different for White Castle with many small burgers vs the fewer large burgers at other places?

The video that exists shows the Flippy only making french fries [1]. No burger cooking at all. And if you've seen how they do the burgers at WC [2], that's no small task for a robot yet.

The french fry station looks like an ideal place to start, anyway, since it's usually a task that doesn't get a dedicated worker unless the place is extremely busy. In the quieter times it's something nobody has time to work or monitor while doing other things. And then, suddenly, everyone is waiting on the fries to finish.

From a more critical POV, it's kind of a kluge but at least a human can take over. There have been products for a long time [3] that are more self-contained and can do smaller batches of fries but need a hell of a lot more maintenance and cleaning.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB4vFRcCN-4

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSYlFMylrWI&t=1m14s

[3] https://www.autofry.com/

> No burger cooking at all. And if you've seen how they do the burgers at WC [2], that's no small task for a robot yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSYlFMylrWI&t=1m14s

From the video, it actually seems as though White Castle burgers are even more optimized for process automation as their preparation doesn't even require flipping (TIL).

The water and onions are so messy that it actually would be a hinderance to automation. The bread would also need to be steamed somehow.

If you want to see flipless automation, McDonald's has been doing it this way for a few decades now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mj7_a1Egew

Ah, older articles were talking about it doing burgers too at white castle. This one only mentions the fries but doesn't mention burgers. Looks like maybe they transitioned to fry station only?

And the White Castle is easier to automate than other burgers. Small, sure but also limited toppings - no choices, no sauce. (McDonald's is surprisingly complex by comparison)

There are a few things that come to mind with the white castle burgers:

- Square patties already designed for uniform mass-cooking

- Square-ish bun (Easier to grab/guide I would assume)

- Open-face Box packaging rather than a wrapper or clamshell

It's a pretty streamlined design as-is, as evidenced by how quickly you can get a crave case from time to order.

Circle or square isn't that critical, the uniform shape is the key.

I think the Miso videos usually even show "regular" patties.

Walgreens run pilot with Theranos and see where it all went. Running pilot is usually done on the best machine they have under constant supervision of the second in line to the tech who built in. Different than deployment off the production line hundreds of machines without even knowing a real-life breaking ratio. Also the cost of operation is somewhat at $3,500 or some $17 per hour for a full shift, so much more than average cook takes (excluding tips which this machine won't get). Not to mention cooks very rarely just cook... they do all kind of in kitchen tasks that this machine cannot.

I guess we'll find out since this one is moving beyond the pilot. $17 per hour is less in many areas, considering cost to the company for a person also includes additional things like payroll taxes.

Seems plausible to me. Eg Fast food burger patties are basically frozen pucks heated for set time etc

If you structure everything around it from the start I could see it

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