Chipotle is testing a collaborative robot prototype that cuts, cores and peels avocadoes before they are hand-mashed to assist in making guacamole, the company announced Wednesday.
The device, called Autocado, is currently being tested in the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine, California.
The fast casual chain is partnering with Vebu, a product development company, to create the device, according to a news release.
Vebu worked with Chipotle’s training managers to analyze the company’s preparation process and identify tasks that are time consuming and less favorable among crew members, according to the release.
It currently takes approximately 50 minutes to make a batch of guacamole.
Vebu is currently working on improving the machine’s speed, allowing employees more time to focus on serving customers.
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Chipotle is currently testing the Autocado to help make guacamole
Autocado is currently being tested at the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine, California.
USA TODAY
“The intensive labor of cutting, coring, and scooping avocados could be relieved with Autocado, but we still maintain the essential culinary experience of hand mashing and hand preparing the guacamole to our exacting standards,” said Curt Garner, Chief Customer and Technology Officer at Chipotle, in the news release.
“Our purpose as a robotic company is to leverage automation technology to give workers more flexibility in their day-to-day work,” said Buck Jordan, CEO of Vebu, in the release.
Jordan added that Autocado has the potential to work alongside Chipotle crew members to “create the same, delicious guacamole that Chipotle fans love but more efficiently than ever before.”
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Another robot for tortilla chips?
In addition to Autocado, Chipotle announced in March 2022 it’s testing Chippy, an “autonomous kitchen assistant that integrates culinary traditions with artificial intelligence to make tortilla chips.”
According to a news release, Chippy, created by Miso Robotics, is trained to replicate Chipotle’s exact recipe to cook chips to perfection.
“Everyone loves finding a chip with a little more salt or an extra hint of lime,” said Nevielle Panthaky, Vice President of Culinary at Chipotle in the news release.
“To ensure we didn’t lose the humanity behind our culinary experience, we trained Chippy extensively to ensure the output mirrored our current product, delivering some subtle variations in flavor that our guests expect,” he said.
