Chipotle is testing avocado-peeling robots

Chipotle has a new robot called the Autocado with a key assignment: peeling avocados. The prototype machine “cuts, cores, and peels avocados” by the case before workers mash them up for guacamole in a process Chipotle is describing as using cobots (collaborative robots).

The company says the robot being tested in a store at 20972 Magnolia St. in Huntington Beach, California, will help free employees up for other tasks. The “size agnostic” Autocado machine can get an avocado peeled and seeded within 26 seconds, according to Chipotle.

Chipotle says it has invested money from a $100 million venture fund into both of the companies it partnered with for the two new systems — Vebu for the Autocado and Hyphen helped create its new Augmented Makeline.

This Makeline it’s testing in a Corona del Mar, California store (3050 East Coast Hwy), “uses automated technology to build bowls and salads” for customers on a line beneath the usual prep area. The company says that “approximately 65 percent of all Chipotle digital orders are bowls or salads.” (Sincerest condolences to customers whose favorite burrito bowl-making employee has a heavy guacamole hand — it will still be extra.)