Robot serves up food in Afghanistan for the first time

Timea, a robot, is a newly introduced waitress at a fast-food restaurant in Kabul - the first time in the war torn country of Afghanistan.

The Japan-made robot has become a local celebrity since her debut one month ago.

The robot attracts Kabul residents to come to the restaurant in a country where many people suffer from daily conflicts and war.
 "Our purpose is to motivate our young generation to see the robot and to make them interested in investing such technologies in the country. And we want them to innovate (on) such initiatives in the future," said the Times restaurant manager Mohammad Rafi Shirzad on Tuesday (February 11).

Timea brings the food from the restaurant kitchen to customers, and a particular electronic track is set to Timea to enable her to move to each table freely.

"It's a good initiative, and I'm so happy to see (that) my country is progressing. It's inspiring," said a customer of the restaurant, Masooda Jan, who was there with her friend to have lunch.

Spokesman for the Afghan ministry of communication and information technology, Sayed Hamid Mansoor, told Reuters that this is the first time a restaurant is using a robot as a waitress in Afghanistan, and that they support this initiative to improve technology in the country.




REUTERS