Rocket scientists’ next feat? Mobile robots that make pizza from scratch

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NEW YORK — You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to make a pizza.

But it helps to be a rocket scientist if you want to develop robots on wheels that make pizza from scratch to take aim at pizza giants Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns and Little Caesars.

Benson Tsai, who developed battery technology for SpaceX’s satellites and spacecraft, has assembled a team of some 40 rocket scientists and other technologists to “solve pizza,” according to Bloomberg.

Would you ever believe this was made by a pizza robot? Thanks for changing the pizza game @EatStellarPizza. @thatbilloakley you ready to try robot pizza next time your in LA? pic.twitter.com/zX5fX5qm3I

— LAeats 🍔🥟🍩☕️ (@LAeats) November 13, 2022

It also helps to have the financial backing of people like rapper Jay-Z, whose venture capital firm has invested millions of dollars in Stellar Pizza.

According to the Bloomberg report, Tsai’s vision of the company, realized as Stellar Pizza, is that customers search out the truck via an app. Someone drives the truck to an office park, shopping center or residential area, orders are placed on the app and the robot makes a pizza from scratch.

According to Stellar Pizza’s website, the menu includes cheese; pepperoni; pepperoni and sausage; vegetables supreme meat lover’s and build-your-own pizza options.

Stellar Pizza currently serves the Los Angeles area, according to its website.

According to the Bloomberg report, “the so-called robot doesn’t look much like a robot at all. It’s more of a food truck with a miniaturized assembly line inside.”

Tsai says Stellar can outdo Domino’s by “trading the costs of physical real estate for mobile pizzerias and by employing fewer humans,” Bloomberg reported. Domino’s generates more than $4 billion in revenue annually.

Apparently the sky’s the limit when it comes to pizza consumption.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, one in eight Americans — 13% — eat pizza on any given day. Children eat two times and teenagers eat four times more pizza today than they did 30 years ago, according to the USDA.

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