Published at 02:16h, December 13, 2022
Updated December 13, 2022 at 02:16
Robots can now make French fries and clean toilets thanks to technological advances. Even this article was written by an automated robot.
For now, let’s just laugh about the last one. Many tasks are performed by robots that aren’t visible to the public. According to the International Federation of Robotics, 121,000 robots were purchased in 2021 for service-sector work. Las Vegas, USA is the best place to test their abilities.
These are just a few of the experiences you can have with Las Vegas robots right now.
Pepper greets guests at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s 23rd-floor Sky Lobby. Pepper is available to assist guests at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s 23rd-floor Sky Lobby. (Image: luxurypictures.org)
Robot Food Server
Servi, a 4-foot tall server built by Bear Robotics delivers food to the diners at Rachel’s Kitchen at the District in Green Valley Ranch in Henderson. She is loaded with food by employees and assigned a table number. After she has finished filling her plate, Servi will come to your table for light conversation. Servi can also be accompanied by humans when servers bus tables. Servi will load up dirty dishes on her and send them back to their kitchen.
Richtech Robotics has also created a robot that delivers food to the Catchers Fish House, Charleston Boulevard. It is not a robot with arms or legs. Instead, it has four trays and can move on its own. Caribbean Mike is the name employees gave it. It senses when someone is getting in its way. It will request that the person move if it finds out. “Otherwise, I’ll get fired,” it will say.
A Richtech robot serves at Trattoria Marc Sgrizzi in the Ahern Hotel.
Robotic bartenders make libations in the Tipsy Robot at Miracle Mile’s shopping center. (Image: latimes.com)
Robot Bartender
Planet Hollywood’s Miracle Mile is where the Tipsy Robot opened in 2017. The robot features a pair dancing arms and can mix 120 drinks an hour. You order – via one of 33 tablets at the bar – from a menu of 18 signature $14-$18 cocktails. You can also customize your drink depending on what ingredients are used.
Your turn will come when one arm grabs a cup from the ground and places it in a slot at the bar. It will then reach for the 152 liquor bottles suspended from ceiling. It will also add a garnish, which includes some that the robot cut. Your drink will then be placed into the cup. The slot slides up to the top of the cup.
This process can take 60 to 90 seconds. Between drinks, robots rinse themselves with steam. The robots are manned by humans to ensure that everything is running smoothly.
Robot Room Service Attendant
Among Vdara’s employees are Fetch and Jett, a pair of three-foot high robots that deliver snacks, sundries, and spa products to hotel guests. Robot developer Savioke designed the robots. Although they still require human assistance in loading their orders and navigating elevators, hallways, and other obstacles to reach your room, it is completely autonomous. You will be contacted by phone once you have arrived. Only once your room door opens will Fetch or Jett’s lid unlock.
The property claims that relays take less than five seconds to deliver a package within the hotel’s 56-story building.
Robot Concierge/Dance Partner
Pepper greets guests at the Mandarin Oriental’s 23rd-floor Sky Lobby. You can ask him questions or get directions.
Robot measuring 3 feet tall can recognize and identify your gender, age and mood.
Drivers for Lyft and Robot Uber
Both Lyft as well as Uber have recently launched robotaxi in Las Vegas. They both use modified Hyundai vehicles from driverless tech firm Motional. However, the ride-sharing companies send out these cars with human operators just in case. Both companies expect to see fully-driverless services in Las Vegas by next year.
Are They Going to Take Our Jobs?
Although the novelty is huge, how do we celebrate machines that eventually will make our jobs redundant? According to the World Economic Forum, 85 million human jobs will be eliminated by 2025 if there is a shift of labor between machines and people.
To Las Vegas, a city with such a high concentration of potentially automatable jobs – two out of three, according to a 2018 study from the National Association of Workforce Boards and the Bertlesmann Foundation – this could spell devastation.
Bethany Khan, a spokeswoman for Culinary Workers Union Local 226 – which represents about 60,000 workers in Las Vegas’ hospitality industry – said in an email to Casino.org that there are no robots in establishments where Culinary members are employed, in part due to a 2018 contract guaranteeing job training and retraining to offset the replaced jobs.
“New technology being introduced in the workplace is not new,” Khan said. “Hospitality jobs will continue to change and evolve as they always have. The Culinary Union’s innovative technology language ensures that workers can grow with technology, have a seat at the table, and that new technology is implemented in a worker-centered way.”
