According to observations from many of the human workers still employed by one such restaurant, the robots simply lacked the intelligence, artificial or otherwise, to effectively wait on guests.
Of the three restaurants in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou that attempted the practice, only one remains open, and that eatery is now currently only using one of the robots it initially employed.
One of the establishments employed as many as 10 robots at one time. The gimmick reportedly had some short-term benefit of driving customers through the door.
However, those guests reportedly were just as quickly turned away by food that was generally considered “unpalatable” for guests, according to reports.
Likewise, the robots were unable to pour beverages for guests, nor were they able to consistently take accurate food orders.
Robots and other forms of artificial intelligence have all but replaced their human counterparts in much of the manufacturing sector, where tasks are repeatable, and the work rarely changes. Where the technology has lagged so far, though, is in tasks that require the artificial intelligence to work autonomously.
In short, robots still lack the ability to think for themselves well enough to replace human waiters and waitresses.
Restaurants still maintain a presence at that restaurant, but as greeters and not as wait staff.
