Turns Out Robot Waiters Aren't As Good As Humans After All

Turns out, thank goodness, robot waiters aren't nearly
as good as humans for the job. n

A restaurant in China decided to obtain robots to serve meals to customers rather than deal with the expense, messiness and, well, human-ness of actual people as waiters.

It didn't go well, which means at least for now, the legions of waiters at all those restaurants out there can keep their jobs, unless of course they keep forgetting orders, dumping beer on customers or steal from the till.

Luckily, almost all human waiters are better than those described in the above paragraph, which is more than I can say for the robot waiters in China.

According to The Verge, the Chinese restaurant chain bought several waiter robots at $7,000 a pop, but the robots couldn't even pour drinks right. Or serve soup. Or take orders from customers and understand them correctly. Plus they kept breaking down.

Two of the restaurants had to close down due to the incompetent robots. A third restaurant in the chain was able to stay open, but only because it hired flesh and blood humans to serve customers.

Apparently, robots can handle repetitive tasks well, but have trouble when interacting with us quirky, weird humans.

Maybe you don't have to tip robot waiters, but its probably worth tipping humans if it means you actually get the food and drinks you want at the restaurant.

For Anyone Who Has Ever Been A Waiter, This Rant Is For You

Many moons ago, I waited tables to make ends meet.

Thadra Sheridan has LOTS to say
about waiting tables, and she does
it hilariously.  

That's true for a lot of us.

Waiting tables is a lot like watching Issues on Parade.

Most people were nice enough, but some people were just demanding and weird.

You learned if you scratched the surface their whines and complaints had little to do with the food and the service and a lot to do with their own inability to handle life.

These people made you really want to rant and explode they were so infuriating. However we luckily have this video from Thadra Sheridan that says it like it's meant to be said.

Sheridan is a well established and popular poet, essayist, performer, columnist and teacher. It's worth checking out her Web site. 

Meanwhile, her rant about waiting tables is so highly entertaining and laugh out loud funny you HAVE to watch: