![]() ![]() “They need younger customers,” many of whom are more active on social media. “Traditional Chinese are getting old,” Wang says. The bots found an early following at dim sum parlors in Queens and Manhattan Chinatown, especially at old-school spots looking to attract new customers. New York City, where WowRobee is headquartered and labor costs are among the highest, is poised to become the company’s biggest market nationwide. The robotic servers have been making waves in Detroit, Dallas, and a handful of other United States cities. “Owners are using the robot to reduce labor costs.” ![]() “The labor cost is higher in New York City than other places,” he says. However cute, BellaBot is ostensibly a cost-cutting measure, says Michael Wang, chief operating officer of WowRobee, the company that oversees United States marketing and sales for Pudu. Eater critic Robert Sietsema spotted this specimen at New Mulan in Flushing. En route, they’re programmed to dodge staffers, bat their eyelashes at customers, and sing happy birthday in voices that would feel right at home on Sesame Street. Staffers load them with food, punch in the table where an order is headed, and off they go, moving at speeds that can exceed a meter per second. The robots cost around $16,000 each they are programmed with a restaurant’s layout and navigates the floor using laser sensors. Earlier this month, Brooklyn Magazine caught another telling jokes on the floor of Dimmer & Summer, a dim sum restaurant new to Cobble Hill. After debuting at a tech trade show in Las Vegas in 2020, the robots started popping up at restaurants across the United States last August.Įater critic Robert Sietsema spotted one holding court at New Mulan, a dim sum parlor located above a Flushing food court. It comes from maker Pudu Robotics, a company based in Shenzhen, China, that recently made landfall in the United States. In exchange, they perform basic duties, like carting around boba and bamboo steamers of har gow, an unlikely and somewhat dystopian solution to cut down operating costs.īellaBot, the name of the robot most commonly found in New York City restaurants, is outfitted with plastic cat ears and a dozen animated facial expressions. The robots can cost owners as much as a 2022 Kia Forte. This week in unpredictable headlines: Robotic cat servers are descending on dim sum parlors in Brooklyn and Queens. ![]()
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