The Robot You Probably Want

Many of us grew up watching Rosie, George and Judy Jetson’s robot maid prepare their family dinners and do the cleanup afterward. 

TechCruch reported on Chowbotics’ recent $5 million in venture funding to roll out Sally – its salad-making robot. The company’s video shows a countertop machine that contains 20 canisters loaded with precut ingredients to select from. These 20 canisters offer more than 1,000 combinations. The touchscreen shows the ingredients and adds up the calorie count as you select each ingredient. 

Restaurants and offices have already signed up – but one is important for us to note. H-E-B is installing one in its corporate cafeteria. No doubt, if it's uccessful, we could see more rolling out in H-E-B’s stores and other supermarkets. 

What I like about Sally is that not only does it take up a lot less space than the typical salad bar, but it also dramatically improves the food safety nightmare that many operators worry about. And then there's the human factor – you know – those people who use the same tongs or spoons in many different ingredients, or worse, the people who decide they want a tomato and just pick them up with their hands and pop them in their mouths. 

The one change I would like to see in this unit is a see-though façade so customers can see their salad ingredients as well as the photo on the touchscreen. Sally costs $30,000 – much more than that salad bar – and you still have to add all of those chopped and diced ingredients.