Pizza restaurants: Why pizza-making robots are not cutting it

The "dough feeder". The sauce and cheese modules – even the pepperoni-sprinkler. All lay still. A now defunct duo of robots were supposed to be churning out pizzas at a Moto Pizza restaurant in Seattle. However, in May the pair were rendered "basically useless" when their supplier, Picnic, abruptly shut down. Technical support for the robots evaporated at that moment, says Lee Kindell, founder and chief executive of Moto Pizza. He was left wondering what to do with the $160,000 (£118,000), cabinet-like machines and whether buying in pizza bots was really worth it. "I don't know if I want to do a partnership again because of the failures," he says. The robot pizza-making business has, it's true, been littered with sorry tales of overcooked promises and melting fortunes. Besides Picnic, other companies that have come and gone include Zume and Pazzi, which used robot arms to assemble pizzas, as well as Basil Street, a purveyor of pizza vending machines. Although so-called fast food might seem an easy target for automation, it's proved harder than many expected. Plus, bringing robots into pizza restaurants could take away entry-level jobs in the hospitality sector. Is the future really