Rohit Krishnan (@strangeloopcanon): "Good question. The key thing that makes waiters different is that they are in charge of preference elicitation. Most diners don’t already know what they want, they don’t even know the supply (the dishes) well. So someone needs to make the market. If those become easy, then they…"

The app for independent voices

Good question. The key thing that makes waiters different is that they are in charge of preference elicitation. Most diners don’t already know what they want, they don’t even know the supply (the dishes) well. So someone needs to make the market.

If those become easy, then they can be replaced (eg McDonalds). If it’s execution, they can be replaced (get me a robot chef). Waymo already knows my preferences, the offering is a commodity, that’s why the human touch is superfluous.

Deena Mousa

Feb 10

What makes waiters different from taxi drivers? Most people find ordering via tablet at restaurants unpleasant but prefer driverless cars like Waymos to taking Ubers.

When is the human touch value additive, and when is it cumbersome? Answering this question might be very important to forecasting some labor market effects over the coming years.

On paper, the job of waiter has been fully automated for over a decade. And yet, today there remain 1.9 million waiters across the US. It’s true that this number has dipped recently, and is slightly below the historical peak. Under the pressure of automation, the BLS forecasts that it will further decline within the next decade… by 1 percent.3 Is that the worst that full automation can do to this job?

Adam Ozimek

Feb 10

10:13 PM

The app for independent voices

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