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Chipotle has a new robot called the Autocado with a key assignment: peeling avocados. The prototype machine \u201ccuts, cores, and peels avocados\u201d by the case before workers mash them up for guacamole in a process Chipotle is describing<\/a> as using cobots (collaborative robots).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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 \u201csize agnostic\u201d Autocado machine can get an avocado peeled and seeded within 26 seconds, according to Chipotle. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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 \u2014 Vebu for the Autocado and Hyphen helped create its new Augmented Makeline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This Makeline it\u2019s testing in a Corona del Mar, California store (3050 East Coast Hwy), \u201cuses automated technology to build bowls and salads\u201d for customers on a line beneath the usual prep area. The company says that \u201capproximately 65 percent of all Chipotle digital orders are bowls or salads.\u201d (Sincerest condolences to customers whose favorite burrito bowl-making employee has a heavy guacamole hand \u2014 it will still be extra.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n