Timea will take your orders now: Kabul eatery first in Afghanistan to use robot

KABUL (Arab News): A Kabul restaurant has become the first in Afghanistan to use a robot as its waiter, drawing flak from experts focusing on rampant joblessness in the country.

However, that hasn’t stopped regular and new diners from visiting the Times Restaurant, with its owners saying their cash registers haven’t stopped ringing since Timea began work last week.

Standing 1.5 meters tall and weighing 30 kg, the petite white and grey robot has been designed to give the impression that she is wearing a hijab or headscarf, and only serves women and families in the segregated section of the hotel, Mohammad Rafi Sherzad, the restaurant’s manager, told Arab News.

“It takes orders, processes it, serves food and delivers and bills the customers. It is a technological renovation here. We have regular customers, but new ones are also visiting to see the robot, too,” Sherzad said.

After taking an order and serving customers, Timea thanks them in audio messages that are prerecorded in Dari and Pashto, two of Afghanistan’s main languages.

And she doesn’t even take a tip.

“We usually go to other restaurants, but today came to see the robot,” said Mohammad Ajmal Raskh, a civil servant who visited the eatery with his wife and two children.

Another diner, school student Asadullah, said he was “thrilled” to see the robot in action.

“Hospitals and clinics could use this technology, too, based on their requirements,” he told Arab News.

However, in a country grappling with growing poverty, a high rate of joblessness and major power cuts, the use of the robot has drawn criticism, with experts saying it is a “ridiculous” move.

“This is unnecessary, perhaps, ridiculous and counter-productive, because 65 percent of people live below the poverty line, some barely live on a dollar a day, and the unemployment rate is very high. The restaurant owner should have dedicated it to a university for research,” Mohsin Amin, an analyst, said.

Sherzad, however, is taking the criticism in stride.

“Other restaurants may also introduce the same technology soon. Also, we have not fired any of our waiters to replace them with Timea.”