Driverless Farm Machines and Robots: Food’s Tech Push Gathers Pace

Driverless forklifts, robotic arms and mechanical jaws help squeeze as many as 1.6 million pounds of lemons a day at a factory north of Los Angeles. The army of robots are now doing what was a tedious task for staff at fast-food chain Chick-fil-A.

The plant — larger than the average Costco store — then ships bags of juice to Chick-fil-A locations, where workers add water and sugar to make the chain’s trademark lemonade. As Bloomberg News’ Daniela Sirtori reports this week, squeezing lemons added up to 10,000 hours of work a day across all locations and caused many injured fingers. The automated site frees up staff to serve customers faster.