Visitors to HENN-NA, a restaurant outside Nagasaki, Japan, are greeted by an odd sight: their food being prepared by a row of humanoid robots that look like the Terminator. H. I. S., the company that runs the restaurant, as well as a nearby hotel where robots check guests into their rooms and help with their luggage, turned to automation partly out of necessity. Japan’s population is shrinking, and its economy is booming; the unemployment rate is only 2.8 percent. “Using robots makes a lot of sense in a country like Japan,” said CEO Hideo Sawada.
Sawada predicts that 70 percent of the jobs at Japan’s hotels will be automated in the next five years. “It takes about a year to two to get your money back,” he said. “But since you can work them 24 hours a day, and they don’t need vacation, eventually it’s more cost-efficient to use the robot.”
This may seem like a vision of the future best suited—perhaps only suited—to Japan. But according to Michael Chui, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, many tasks in the food-service and accommodation industry are exactly the kind that are easily automated. Chui’s latest research estimates that 54 percent of the tasks workers perform in American restaurants and hotels could be automated using currently available technologies.
The robots, in fact, are already here. Chowbotics, a company in Redwood City, California, manufactures Sally, a boxy robot that prepares salads ordered on a touch screen. Botlr, a robot butler, now brings guests extra towels and toiletries in dozens of hotels around the country.
This seems to be worrying. America’s economy isn’t developing nearly as smoothly as Japan’s, and one of the few bright spots in recent years has been employment in restaurants and hotels, which have added more jobs than almost any other industry. That growth, in fact, has helped dull the blow that automation has delivered to other industries. The food-service and accommodation industry now employs 13. 7 million American. Since 2013, it has accounted for more jobs than manufacturing.
These new positions once seemed safe from robots because they required a human touch in a way that manufacturing or mining jobs did not. When ordering a coffee or checking into a hotel, human beings want to interact with other human beings—or so we thought. The companies bringing robots into the service industry are betting that we’ll be happy to trade our relationship with robotic waiters or clerks for greater efficiency. They’re also confident that adding robots won’t necessarily mean cutting human jobs.
39. According to the writer, why was it partly out of necessity that H. I. S. turned to automation?
A.It’s hard to find employees in Japan. |
B.The Japanese are used to using robots. |
C.Robotic technology is advanced in Japan. |
D.Japan’s economy develops less fast than expected. |
40. According to Michael Chui, which of the following statements is true?
A.It is no easy job to automate tasks in the hotel industry. |
B.Restaurant workers can be easily replaced by robots. |
C.Technologies need upgrading to pave the way for robotic waiters. |
D.Robots now perform 54% of the tasks in American restaurants and hotels. |
41. Why does the automation in American restaurants and hotels seem worrying?
A.The manufacturing industry is waiting to be automated. |
B.America’s economy is developing at an unexpected rate. |
C.Automation has already had a negative effect on the service industry. |
D.These two industries contribute much to America’s employment rate. |
42. It can be inferred that companies bringing robots into the service industry think that ________.
A.the human touch may not matter that much |
B.profit is more important than customer satisfaction |
C.manufacturing or mining jobs require human interaction |
D.robots will rob humans of their jobs at the cost of efficiency |