The Henn-na Hotel (aptly translated into “Weird Hotel”) has just opened in Japan, and it’s entirely staffed by robots, as you can see in the video above.
At the beginning, three receptionists (a woman, a robot and a dinosaur) are happy to help customers check in. The dinosaur is the one that speaks English. Then, an automated luggage carrier takes care of your bags while some kind of robot doll (an alarm clock?) enthusiastically yells stuff at you in Japanese. There’s also a robot arm that’ll put your valuables into lockers for safe-keeping.
According to the Guardian, the robots are there to cut down on labor costs. Humans still fulfill some tasks, though:
One area on which Henn na Hotel still relies on humans is security. It is dotted with security cameras, and real people watch everything through a monitor to ensure guests are safe and no one makes off with an expensive robot.
“And they still can’t make beds,” said Sawada, who has also engineered the rise of a popular affordable Japanese travel agency.
And these robots aren’t yet sentient (that we know of), so…that’s also good.
(Via Guardian and Ars Technica)