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Preparing avocados is a big job in Mexican restaurants, considering how many avocados are used in guacamole and other dishes. The task of cutting and coring the green fruit is usually done by hand, but Chipotle is trying something new: Autocado, a robot that preps avocados before they are hand mashed to create guacamole.
Autocado cuts the avocados, removes their skin, and separates their fruit. On average, it takes Autocado approximately 26 seconds to fully flesh out the fruit inside an avocado. The machine recognizes variability in the fruit and automatically adjusts itself to accommodate the size of the avocados being loaded.
Autocado, which was developed in partnership with tech company Vebu, is currently operating at a Chipotle’s location in Huntington Beach, California. In Chipotle locations across the U.S., Canada, and Europe this year, the company is expected to use approximately 5.18 million cases of avocados, equivalent to 129.5 million pounds of fruit.
The chain is also testing another piece of technology, the Augmented Makeline. The Augmented Makeline, developed in collaboration with tech company Hyphen, uses automation to build bowls and salads. Approximately 65 percent of all Chipotle digital orders are bowls or salads, so the Augmented Makeline can improve employee efficiency and digital order accuracy.
The Augmented Makeline is being utilized at the company’s Corona del Mar, California location.
Chipotle has invested in Vebu and Hyphen through its $100 million Cultivate Next venture fund. Introduced in 2022, Cultivate Next makes early-stage investments in strategically aligned companies that further Chipotle’s mission and help accelerate the company’s plans to operate 7,000 restaurants in North America.
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