- A burger chain has created a machine that uses facial-recognition technology to remember customers’ past orders.
- Customers can order at CaliBurger simply by smiling at a kiosk.
- The high-tech chain has already started using robots to flip burgers in its kitchens.
A burger chain that uses robots to flip burgers is replacing cashiers with machines that know your order by analyzing your face.
CaliBurger, a burger chain with more than 40 locations globally, is now allowing customers to order using a kiosk that automatically recognizes the faces of certain loyal customers. The burger chain and the NEC Corporation of America, which made the machines’ artificial intelligence technology, unveiled the self-ordering kiosks on Tuesday.
Customers use the new kiosk by creating an loyalty account with CaliBurger, linking their faces to past orders. Then, when they return to the burger chain, they simply need to look into the machine's camera - and their orders will automatically pop up.
Currently, CaliBurger is testing the kiosk at a single location in Pasadena, California. If all goes well, the chain plans to roll out the self-ordering, face-recognizing kiosk at all locations in 2018.
"Our goal for 2018 is to replace credit card swipes with face-based payments," Cali Group CEP John Miller said in a statement. "Facial recognition is part of our broader strategy to enable the restaurant and retail industries to provide the same kinds of benefits and conveniences in the built world that customers experience with retailers like Amazon in the digital world."
CaliBurger has made waves with its focus on using robots for jobs typically reserved for humans. The chain uses an robot to flip burgers in the kitchen and is developing infrastructure to replace food deliverers with autonomous vehicles.
Here's the CaliBurger's face-recognizing, self-ordering robot in action: