Chipotle Testing Tortilla Chip-Making Robot (Does This Mean Guac Is Still Extra?)

In the grand tradition of automated, AI everything, Chipotle is at work on a chip-making robot named (not so cleverly) Chippy. The so-called “autonomous kitchen assistant” created by Miso Robotics combines technology with culinary skills to take the fast-casual eatery into the future.

“We are always exploring opportunities to enhance our employee and guest experience. Our goal is to drive efficiencies through collaborative robotics that will enable Chipotle’s crew members to focus on other tasks in the restaurant,” Chipotle Chief Technology Officer Curt Garner said in a statement.

While Chippy will obviously follow Chipotle’s chip recipe – consisting of corn masa flour, water, sunflower oil, salt, and fresh lime juice – to the letter, that doesn’t mean the chips will necessarily taste like they just came off an assembly line.

“Everyone loves finding a chip with a little more salt or an extra hint of lime,” said Nevielle Panthaky, vice president of culinary at Chipotle. “To ensure we didn’t lose the humanity behind our culinary experience, we trained Chippy extensively to ensure the output mirrored our current product, delivering some subtle variations in flavor that our guests expect.”

The innovative new employee came to be as a result of team members’ feedback that frying those irresistible chips takes a helluva lot of time. By automating chip production, Chipotle hopes that it can free up its human workers to “have more time to spend serving and supporting our guests as well as on other tasks,” Garner told Today Food.

It might be a while until you see Chippy in action with your own eyes, however. It’s currently being tested out at the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine, California. Later this year, it will be installed at a Southern California location before the big country-wide rollout.

Since Chippy is bound to save the company some dough, we have to ask: is guac still going to be extra?

Cover Photo: Chipotle

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