Would you tip a robot if it poured you the perfect drink? You might have to solve that one yourself if you plan on making a trip to Sin City. The Tipsy Robot bar at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas is set to open today, and it will be serving up drinks from the claws of its fully autonomous robot staff.
Programmed without all the faults of a human, the two robot arms employed as bartenders should serve up the perfect pour in under 70 seconds.
“My partners and I decided to do something to create a new trend so we can be ahead of time,” owner Rino Armeni told the Las Vegas Sun. “So, this is a gift from us to the city of Las Vegas.”
Ah yes, what a wonderful gift to create jobs for lifeless robot arms instead of the wonderful citizens of Las Vegas.
To make matters worse, these robots aren’t even the cute ones that will speak to you. Customers will have to interface with the robotic bartenders at one of the tablet stations throughout the bar or on their smartphones. They will be asked to enter their email address to receive a QR code that gets scanned by the robots. This lets bargoers see where they are in the queue. They will also receive an alert when their drink is ready.
Once the order is placed, a robotic arm grabs a glass, fills up the “head,” and prepares the drink as requested. It then reaches up to more than 150 bottles of liquor suspended from the ceiling before placing the drink on a belt that moves it toward the customer. The bartenders even wash themselves between drinks.
It’s worth noting that while the robots themselves are fully autonomous, the bar still staffs 16 humans to serve beer, champagne, and mimosas.
You would think limiting human labor costs would help keep the price of a cocktail down, but you’ll have to shell out $14 for a one-shot drink from a bartender that can’t even recommend a concert on the Strip.
H/T CNET
