Chipotle's New Robot Will Make Burrito Bowls Alongside Human Employees

Chipotle’s social media accounts can be on the nose sometimes, with memes about sweater- and spooky- seasons, respectively; with rhetorical graphics about how a burrito would wear its pants; and with an oddly terrifying corncob-human hybrid called “Corn Lad.” But earlier this week, @Chipotle went serious on Instagram, providing a preview of Hyphen, its “collaborative robot” (or cobot), which it said was currently being tested to make burrito bowls and salads beside its fully human coworkers. 

“Around 65% of Chipotle’s digital orders consist of bowls or salads, so with Hyphen on board, team members would be freed up to focus on guest experiences, while increasing the amount of digital orders during peak periods,” the company wrote. “Kewl beans.” 

This marks the latest release in the California-based chain's partnership with Hyphen, a startup that designs and builds automated makelines for restaurant kitchens. According to Chipotle, Hyphen (the robot) would be deployed in the second makeline and would be used to assemble burrito bowls or salads that had been ordered digitally through the Chipotle app, Chipotle.com, or a third-party platform. 

Each bowl or salad would travel along a conveyor-style belt, and the bowl or container would stop underneath an "intelligent dispenser" that would place a pre-set portion of each ingredient into the bowl. After being filled with each ingredient, the finished bowl would be collected by a human Chipotle team member who would place the lid on it and add any chips, guac, or salsas to the order before packaging it and moving it to the designated pickup area. 

It's worth noting that Chipotle says that any burritos, kids meals, quesadillas, or tacos that are part of a digital order will be made entirely by human employees — and orders that are placed inside each restaurant will still be taken and assembled by a person. 

"Chipotle's new digital makeline built by Hyphen embodies our commitment to leveraging robotics to unlock the human potential of our workforce, ensuring an elevated dining experience for our guests," Curt Garner, Chipotle's chief customer and technology officer, said in a statement. "Our goal is to have the automated digital makeline be the centerpiece of all our restaurants' digital kitchens." 

The use of Hyphen could allow each restaurant to process and assemble over 350 meals from digital orders every hour. It would also free up staff members to assemble orders from in-person customers and to "deliver exceptional hospitality," according to the statement.  

Hyphen and its automated makeline are currently being tested at the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine, California. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Garner said the system was still "months away" from being trialed in an actual Chipotle restaurant. 

This isn't Chipotle's first foray into robotics or automation; it has previously tested another cobot called Autocado, which slices avocados for its guacamole, and Chippy, a robotic arm that has been trained to make tortilla chips. 

Let's just hope they never consider bringing Corn Lad to life.