【Foreign Archives】

The Foreign Archivesrobots are hungry for more pizza.

Zume Pizza, the Silicon Valley startup that uses robots (with some human assistance) to assemble pizzas ordered via its app, is now delivering even more pies — cooked while en route to customers.

Using the company's patented "Baked on the Way" technology and the delivery truck's six ovens, pizza-makers can bake up to 120 pizzas per hour.

Zume CEO Alex Garden called the operation "basically a restaurant on wheels" in a call about expanded delivery areas in the Bay Area and the revamped delivery vehicles. The pizza restaurant has officially partnered with food equipment supplier Welbilt to outfit delivery trucks with high-efficiency ovens.

Originally Zume filled the trucks with 56 ovens, but with Welbilt, they've whittled down the heavy equipment. Zume will work with other food service companies to build out their own mobile kitchens with Welbilt's appliances, such as steamers, griddles, broilers, and other equipment beyond pizza ovens.

"We’ve become the standard format for a mobile cooking system," Garden said.

Robots are an integral part of Zume's pizza process, but Garden is very clear on his robot philosophy: "Automation exists to improve the quality of human lives." With Zume adding more than two dozen delivery locations by the end of the year, the number of pizzas made and delivered is bound to increase. But so will Zume's investment in humans, Garden assured. "We believe we should be leveraging automation to automate boring, dangerous, repetitive work," he said.

The robot revolution will be well-fed.