[HN Gopher] Former SpaceX Engineers Launching Startup Where Robo...
___________________________________________________________________
Former SpaceX Engineers Launching Startup Where Robots Make Pizzas
in 45 Seconds
Author : cheinyeanlim
Score : 19 points
Date : 2022-08-11 16:12 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (singularityhub.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (singularityhub.com)
| sschueller wrote:
| 45 second bake time can't possibly produce a pizza that is
| "healthy". What kind of additives do you have to add to the dough
| to get that kind fo speed?
| Melting_Harps wrote:
| > 45 second bake time can't possibly produce a pizza that is
| "healthy". What kind of additives do you have to add to the
| dough to get that kind fo speed?
|
| Honestly, it doesn't look that appetizing [0]; it looks like
| something between a Dominoes and a frozen pizza that you'd have
| to be really limited on options to even consider, which if
| you're pulling doubles and everywhere is closed is a likely
| scenario and it's a stand-alone option.
|
| Personally, I think it's an engineer(s) leveraging on their
| SpaceX backgrounds and doing something fun outside of aerospace
| to raise funds and their CVs than revolutionizing pizza making
| as it looks remarkably similar in execution/quality to that of
| a race to the bottom cost-cutting Dominoes product/process,
| with albeit more automation at the assembly stage (toppings are
| done by hand in all the demos I've seen [1]).
|
| SpaceX has lots of food trucks that support their food program
| in addition to their mezzanine kitchen/cafe(s) (Starbase has
| food trucks only to support its dining-meal program) so maybe
| this is one former engineer's take on what he would have done
| differently during COVID is my best guess at explaining the
| 'how,' but the why still eludes me since their are way better
| options on and off site.
|
| Update: It is, and is guided by former SpaceX Head Chef Cizma:
| it's likely a PR stunt/fun project more than anything else [2].
|
| _Stellar Pizza, founded by ex-SpaceX engineers Benson Tsai,
| Brian Langone and James Wahawisan, is a food truck that will
| serve pizzas made by robotic arms that dress and bake the
| pizzas, which customers will be able to order via the company's
| app. Former SpaceX executive chef and director of culinary
| services Ted Cizma is overseeing the recipes with aid from
| consultant and Slow Rise Pizza Co. founder Noel Brohner._
|
| My guess is they want some of Ono Food's Marketshare who
| launched and raised in 2019 [3].
|
| Best of luck to them all!
|
| 0: https://www.eatstellarpizza.com/
|
| 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu9cWMQ9sWg
|
| 2: https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2021-11-30/with-
| stellar-p...
|
| 3: https://www.nrn.com/technology/food-truck-powered-
| advanced-r...
| bell-cot wrote:
| Think back to Calculus 101 - if you make a pizza thin _enough_
| , you can cook it in s seconds, for any s > 0.
| fellowniusmonk wrote:
| At 900 degrees it might be? I have my pizza's (which use a
| super wet dough) at that temp for 90 seconds. I could see it
| working with a drier dough and with some ingredients partially
| pre-cooked.
| cameronh90 wrote:
| I cook Neapolitan pizzas for around 60 seconds and they come
| out well.
| cbsks wrote:
| Is this going to be a stationary food truck? Or is it going to do
| home deliveries?
|
| Either way, good luck to them. There is a lot of competition in
| both spaces.
| sudosysgen wrote:
| Aren't frozen pizzas already made using automated processes? How
| is this any better? Couldn't you just cook frozen pizzas on the
| way as well? Is the sell that these pizzas are going to taste far
| better?
| TazeTSchnitzel wrote:
| I am certain you could order, from an industrial machine
| manufacturer, a nearly completely automated fresh pizza
| production line. You just skip the freezing step and extend the
| cooking period.
| yetihehe wrote:
| Not 45s, but 3 minutes and it's not a production line, but a
| machine making pizza:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4_C1BmT-R8
| neither_color wrote:
| _Stellar says one selling point of its pies is that no human
| hands touch them; they're made entirely by machines, all the way
| through to being slid into a box, which a delivery driver passes
| on to customers._
|
| I don't consider that a selling point since the imperfection is
| part of the experience. Give me a hand tossed New York slice
| sitting under a lamp for a couple hours and re-baked just when I
| order it. The air bubbles in the dough and uneven crispiness make
| each bite just a little different.
| Nullabillity wrote:
| How does reheating work when the average pizza place has maybe
| 30-40 options on the menu?
| flyingfences wrote:
| The options on the menu are for people ordering whole pies.
| If you walk in for a slice, you pick from the few popular
| options on deck.
| shiftpgdn wrote:
| I'd prefer sick people not cough on my pizza.
| neojebfkekeej wrote:
| I understand the sentiment, but it shouldn't be too difficult
| to add a little randomized imperfection to the robot's
| programming. Or is it that after you know the pizza has been
| made by a robot, you're expecting a perfect pie? Ahh, the
| future will be interesting indeed...
| nerpderp82 wrote:
| Your pizza will taste like the sterile sound effect of a
| modern car's turn signal.
| [deleted]
| lakecresva wrote:
| I guess we'll find out whether Zume's problem was not having
| enough former SpaceX engineers.
| nradov wrote:
| I guess this will be the standard lunch ration on the SpaceX Mars
| base?
| claudiulodro wrote:
| As far as I know, Little Caesars has fresh hot pizzas in the
| $7-$10 range this company is targeting. It seems like that's
| going to be their main competition, assuming they get off the
| ground. Is "made by a robot" a good differentiator? What's the
| advantage of robot-made-on-demand -- greater customizability? If
| so, inventory management for all the different toppings would be
| a big challenge, as well as designing robots that can handle all
| the different toppings.
|
| Or, like many SV companies, is pizza the proof-of-concept and
| they're shooting to be the global juggernaut of robot food-making
| and license to the other fast food places? I suspect that's the
| long-term vision.
| bamboozled wrote:
| _Or, like many SV companies, is pizza the proof-of-concept and
| they 're shooting to be the global juggernaut of robot food-
| making and license to the other fast food places? I suspect
| that's the long-term vision._
|
| This was hilarious, not sure if that was your intention ha
| [deleted]
| mbfg wrote:
| How does the machine wash its hands? That's the video i want to
| see.
| tschwimmer wrote:
| I don't know why people are starting these companies with such
| unattractive economics and stiff competition. As noted in the
| Article, Zume raised 375m and failed (plus their pizza was almost
| comically awful). From the photo it looks like this company makes
| a better pizza but there are still some serious problems:
|
| 1) Margins on pizza are not very high. Dominos has a 30% gross
| margin and that's with all the non-pizza crap they've convinced
| people to buy over the years. The quote a $10 price in the
| article (though it's not clear if that's their cost or what
| they're selling for). Say their magical pizza robots instead
| allow for a 50 or 60% gross margin. If they're selling for $10,
| you still gotta sell a crap-ton of $10 pizzas to make any real
| money. That might not be impossible except for the fact that...
| 2) Competition is incredibly difficult. There are a zillion pizza
| places everywhere in the US. In addition to the major chains,
| there are also mom and pop pizza stores too. They are not going
| to sit idly by while this company scoops up marketshare with its
| cheap pizzas. They're going to market aggressively (which hurts
| net margin) and cut prices (which further compresses gross
| margin). It's going to be especially hard for this company
| because they're going up against established brands that everyone
| already knows - they're going to have to outpromote these giant
| companies.
|
| If you really have this magic pizza robot tech, go sell it to
| Dominos. They will happily pay you vast amounts of money and you
| can juice your margins with a subscription model for parts and
| service.
| rdtsc wrote:
| They might be relying on "made by a robot" gimmick. And then if
| the taste is good and it's extremely easy to order I could see
| making it my default "cheap" pizza option.
|
| Granted I don't order pizza that often, I do a cast iron
| version myself. But if they can switch to be the "default
| cheap" pizza for these who order it once every week or two it
| could work.
| turtlebits wrote:
| The time consuming part of pizza is the dough. It is really
| making a pizza when they're using premade dough balls? They are
| also not proofing to room temperature?
|
| Also the headline should be "bake a pizza in 45 seconds" as the
| article states, but I guess it doesn't sound that impressive when
| consumer pizza ovens can already bake one in 60 seconds.
| cratermoon wrote:
| It's not DiGiorno, it's DiGiorno in a truck, cooked on demand and
| delivered to your house.
|
| A mobile pizza assembly line. This is what counts for innovation
| dragging us towards the singularity now?
| fxtentacle wrote:
| Well, it will make a million people unemployed if this tech is
| rolled out across restaurants, so it'll certainly have a large
| effect on society.
| Melting_Harps wrote:
| > Well, it will make a million people unemployed if this tech
| is rolled out across restaurants, so it'll certainly have a
| large effect on society.
|
| It won't, so many positions still remain unfilled since COVID
| that closures due to staff shortages/COVID outbreaks have
| been normalized; assuming this tech could scale to be above a
| certain standard (this looks like public school cafeteria
| food at best) all it would do is lower labour costs by
| putting downward pressure on current wages--which are barely
| at livable levels and will not yield a lower consumer cost as
| shortages for ingredients keep occurring.
|
| There is no real advantage, and the threat of SV titans
| disrupting the Food Industry is was all smoke and mirrors.
|
| The truth is that COVID revealed that this job (cooking) was
| not just grossly underpaid and undervalued for what it was,
| but those who were able to used the opportunity to leveraged
| the skills they learned to move on to a less
| exploitative/demanding Industry and that the tech was simply
| not there to do much--even Ghost Kitchens, which still rely
| on Human labour, have a greater chance at capturing these job
| losses from brick and mortars than anything else as the
| effective cost savings are clear (lowering overhead to it's
| bare essentials and offering many menus in one location).
|
| Despite being a proponent of automation in the food industry,
| specifically at it's origin on the Farm, I doubt this tech
| will ever be a real threat and will remain a novelty at best
| and is at it's core just cashing in on the froth of vC money
| leftover from these last 2 years. You can repeat all the
| mistakes and losses Doordash/UberEats et al have made to gain
| marketshare in a captured market, but without a Softbank
| backing you and really only wanting a sweet IPO exit it
| simply doesn't seem as lucrative or feasible to disrupt
| anything.
| cratermoon wrote:
| Presumably they will need drivers - I'm not holding my
| breath for self-driving vehicles - and people to work on
| the vehicles and the pizza-assembling machines. Probably,
| much like Lime scooters, they will need daily maintenance,
| for cleaning and restocking. Not a recipe for increasing
| unemployment, just moving people from one kind of job to
| another.
|
| Also worth noting is that this puts large, heavy vehicles
| on the road, with all the attendant externalities for that.
| They'll be out there with the Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and
| whoever trucks.
| euroderf wrote:
| If the truck is still manned, then does this operating model
| make any more sense than delivering dog food via the internet ?
| Why do I need the level of personalization associated with
| delivering an entire food truck to my doorstep ?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-08-11 23:02 UTC)