CaliExpress in Pasadena touted as world's first fully autonomous, AI-powered restaurant

PASADENA, Calif. (KABC) -- If you're wondering what the future of fast food is, a Pasadena-based company says it's robots, and its installed several of them in a soon-to-open restaurant in Pasadena's Old Town.

"It's not a Terminator, it's not Transformers. It's a very friendly, helpful robot," said Alana Abbitt, Vice President of Product Development at Miso Robotics, a restaurant automation company. "There's nice robotics, there's Roombas, there's things in your house that have become much more a part of daily life. That's what we're trying to do."

The CaliExpress restaurant is slated to open to the public before the end of the year at 561 East Green Street. The eatery features a hamburger-making robot, a French fry-making robot and uses artificial intelligence to keep the business churning along.

"To our knowledge, this is the world's first operating restaurant where both ordering and every single cooking process are fully automated," said John Miller, CEO of PopID and board member of Miso Robotics. "The marriage of these various technologies to create the most autonomous restaurant in the world is the culmination of years of research, development, and investment in a family of revolutionary companies."

The restaurant though will still feature human employees.

"There are still humans who will pack the food," Abbitt said. "We do want somebody to assemble, package (the food) and actually be the friendly face to the customer.