...AND CHEAPER...:

Zume Pizza, based out of Mountain View, Calif., has replaced human chefs with robotic ones, creating what its owners call a "co-bot situation."

The restaurant, which opened its doors in April, reflects to a more extreme extent the gradual shift that many fast food and fast casual restaurants are making toward more in-restaurant automation, as technology advances and demands for higher minimum wage spread across the country. [...]

[B]y replacing most of its chef positions with intelligent machines, the company has been able to cut its labor costs in half, allowing for a bigger budget for higher-quality ingredients. 

"What we are doing is leveraging the power of this evolution of automation, these intelligent robots, to put better food on people's tables," Ms. Collins told CNBC. "...There are humans and robots collaborating to make better food, to make more fulfilling jobs and to make a more stable working environment for the folks that are working with us." 

Earlier this week, Zume unveiled a new pizza delivery truck equipped with 56 ovens and manned by just one employee, whose only tasks are driving the truck, slicing the pizza, and delivering it to the doorstep. 

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