Chipotle Tests Robot to Make Tortilla Chips

Chipotle partners with Miso Robotics to test "Chippy," a new Miso Robotics Flippy Lite robot to make tortilla chips (or in their words, "an autonomous kitchen assistant that integrates culinary traditions with artificial intelligence to make tortilla chips") at their Chipotle Cultivate Center test kitchen in Irvine, CA with future plans to test it at a Chipotle restaurant in Southern California later this year.

The robot is meant to follow Chipotle's "exact recipe" to cook the chips and then season them with salt and a hint of lime juice. The test comes amid an ongoing labor shortage.

Flippy is Miso Robotics' flagship robotic solution to working a fry station in a fast-food/quick-serve restaurant setting. Most recently, it has seen ongoing expansion at White Castle. They also make a robot specifically-designed for chicken wing frying. They previously made a burger-flipping robot but that no longer seems to be the case. According to the company, the costs of a Flippy robot starts at around $3,000 a month.

Photo via Chipotle.