Speed Reads
For those who have everything
Silicon Valley firm creates salad-making robot
Meet Sally ($30,000), a dorm-fridge-size robot ready to make you "the most perfectly proportioned salad you've ever eaten." Created by Chowbotics, a Silicon Valley firm, Sally launches what could be a family of machines that will also prepare Chinese, Mexican, and Indian food. Until Chowbotics finishes developing a smaller home model, you're most likely to encounter Sally in fast-food restaurants and office or hotel cafeterias. The machine uses sorted vegetables — diced in advance by humans — to whip up any of more than a thousand salad combinations in less than a minute. Sadly, avocado is for now too soft to be robot-handled.