Café X | The first robotic café in the United States
Located in downtown San Francisco’s Metreon shopping center, Café X Technologies has launched its first robotic café in January. Working closely with local coffee roaster partners, Cafe X can consistently serve its customers in seconds with a focus on delivering beverages that taste exactly how the coffee roaster intended. The first location is a highly trafficked dense area which will be the blueprint for future Cafe X locations.
The goal of Café X
Cafe X is solving for the time and quality compromises that consumers are forced to make with daily coffee rituals. The founder and CEO Henry Hu says that Café X is not aiming to replace baristas or the coffee shop experience that so many people have come to love, Café X wants the best possible experience for people who are looking for consistent specialty coffee to-go.
How does it work?
Customers can order customized espresso-based beverages on the spot at the ordering kiosk or they can download the Cafe X app onto their mobile device to order in advance. Once the beverage is ready, customers use the touch screens on the robotic café to type in a 4-digit order number which is either sent via text message or displayed on the Cafe X mobile app for iOS and Android. The robot arm will then identify the customer’s drink from the waiting stations and deliver it to the customer within seconds.
We have seen robots in the hospitality industry before
In the past we wrote an article about the Hen-na hotel in Japan which is entirely staffed by robots and has the goal to reduce labour costs and we have seen a restaurant taking over by robots in China. Although those robots are more created to look like us and in this case it’s only a robotic way to serve coffee.
Website: Café X
