自動化餐廳意味着什麼 Future restaurant waiters will respond to taps instead of tips

Even though a quinoa-based vegetarian bowl is not my idea of the ideal workday lunch, I am excited to check out the restaurant Eatsa the next time I am in San Francisco. It is a restaurant without employees.

儘管藜麥素食飯並不是我理想的工作餐，但我很高興可以在下次去舊金山時見識一下Eatsa餐廳。那是一家沒有員工的餐廳。

To be more precise, no visible ones. There is a staff of five or six cooks assembling the bowls, but they work completely behind the scenes. The typical customer interacts with zero Eatsa employees on a typical visit: she orders and pays via a smartphone or tablet, then picks up her food from a cubbyhole displaying her name. Prices are low, and initial reviews are quite good.

說得更準確些，是沒有看得見的員工。餐廳裏有五六個廚師配餐，但是他們完全在後廚工作。就餐時，通常顧客不會與Eatsa的任何員工互動：顧客通過智能手機或者平板電腦點餐並付款，然後從顯示其姓名的餐架上取餐。價格低廉，初期評價都相當好。

Is this just an updated version of the old automats, with iPads replacing coin slots, or is it something more? There are indications that Eatsa’s founders want it to be the start of something genuinely new: a close to 100 per cent automated restaurant. Food preparation there is highly optimised and standardised, and it is probably no coincidence that the location’s first general manager had a background in robotics.

這究竟只是用iPad取代了投幣口的舊式自動售貨機的升級版，還是不止如此？有跡象表明，Eatsa的創始人希望它開啓一種全新的事物——接近100%自動化的餐廳。那裏的備餐工作高度優化且流程標準化，而且Eatsa第一任經理擁有機器人學背景這一點很可能並非巧合。

But the fact that the restaurant’s “front of house” (ie the dining area and customer interactions) are virtually 100 per cent automated is more interesting to me than the question of whether the “back of house” (the kitchen) ever will be. Interesting because as front of house automation spreads, it is going to put to the test one of the most widely held notions about work in the coming age of automation: that there will always be lots of service jobs because we desire a lot of human interaction.

但是，對我來說，餐廳的“前臺”區域（即就餐區及顧客互動區）幾乎100%的自動化要比“後廚”是否將實現自動化有趣得多。有趣之處在於，隨着前臺自動化的普及，關於在即將到來的自動化時代中的就業的最普遍觀念之一將承受考驗，這個觀念認爲總會有許多的服務類工作，因爲我們渴望大量的人際互動。

I agree with the second half of that statement, but I am not so sure about the first. We are a deeply social species and even an introvert like me enjoys spending time with friends and loved ones in the physical world. I have also learnt to value business lunches and dinners (even though I would rather be off by myself reading or writing) because they are an important part of how work advances.

我同意該觀點的後面一半，但是我對前半部分並不確定。我們是高度社會化的物種，即使像我這樣內向的人也很享受在現實世界裏與朋友和愛人共度的時光。我也學會了看重商業午餐和晚餐（即便我寧願自己一個人看書或寫東西），因爲它們是推進工作的重要部分。

But in the great majority of cases, when I am out I do not value the interactions with the waiting staff and other service workers. They are not unpleasant or terribly burdensome, but they do get in the way of what I want from the restaurant experience: to eat well and to talk to my tablemates. Listening to a recitation of the specials, getting the paper bill and handing off a credit card and learning the server’s name (this happens in America) are distractions from my restaurant experience, not additions to it.

但是，在絕大多數情況下，當我外出時，我並不重視與侍者和其他服務人員的互動。這些互動過程並非令人不快或特別累人，但確實妨礙了我想要得到的用餐體驗——吃得好並且和共同進餐者聊天。聽侍者背招牌菜、拿到賬單、交出信用卡、記住侍者的名字（這種情況出現在美國）都會干擾我的用餐體驗，而不是錦上添花。

Do most people feel the same, most of the time? I do not know, and I doubt there has been any good way of knowing until now, because technology was not mature or cheap enough to enable smooth and cost-effective automation of many service interactions.

多數人在多數情況下的感覺都是這樣嗎？我不知道，我也懷疑目前爲止有什麼好辦法來搞清楚這個問題，因爲技術還不成熟或者還沒便宜到保證服務業互動擁有順暢且成本划算的自動化體驗。