While vending machines can dispense hot food items, RoboBurger is taking the concept one step further. This all-in-one fridge, griddle, and cleaning device will take your order, cook your burger from scratch, and deliver it in about seven minutes — all without a human to take your order, man the grill, or serve it to you.
"We're not here to really replace the service industry," CEO Audley Wilson said. "We really supplement needs, and we provide a hot, high-protein burger in places where no one else can. So it's not really here to replace the lunch rush. It's here to just get you a burger at convenient locations when you need it."
RoboBurger has been in development for 17 years. Its latest prototype has found a home in Newport Centre Mall in Jersey City, N.J. The current burger uses a Pat LaFrieda beef patty and Martin's potato roll. It can dispense melted cheese, ketchup, or mustard on request. The device is certified by the NSF (formerly known as the National Sanitation Foundation) in line with U.S. food safety regulations.
Wilson sees it as an opportunity to help the service industry, which has been struggling with staffing issues since the pandemic began, as well as provide other higher-paying jobs in the area, including robotics-based jobs. In addition, it needs maintenance and operations staff to run the machines,
"We have our manufacturing arm which is based in Newark, and what we do is we build our units," he said. "We source locally, and we hire great employees here in the New York area and teach them how to build robots."
Operations teams are based around the country to service and resupply units in the region.
In the future, the company hopes to add more condiments as well as other kinds of proteins, including plant-based meat and chicken burgers. It is aiming for 100 units in use by the end of the year, expanding to thousands starting in 2023.
"We really hope to be one of the largest burger chains in the country," he said.
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A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
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It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
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