A company just unveiled a fully automated bread machine

And here I thought the pizza vending machines looked high tech. The only thing a person is involved in is pouring a mix into a feeder.

It may not have much use for the home, but I could see this thing get purchased by hotel chains in addition to grocery stores. Who wouldn’t want to have fresh bread while on vacation?

The machine is good to have for health reasons too. Because the bread can be made on demand, there’s no need to have product designed for a long shelf life (which means no preservatives or other chemicals). If you don’t have someone in your life who can bake, this is for you.

Are these different from the machines at Aldi?

Yes they are. The Aldi machines are fed with premade frozen pieces. It takes a human to load and unload the oven. The baking process itself is automated.

Anyways, nothing new on this front. Fully Automated baking systems are used in gastro for at least 10 years. Predating this big bakers have perfected this.
There are machines for the home market also. They are not worth it. Everything that has to do with some kind of convenience/ premade ingredients is going to give you a product that is no where near comparable to what a educated craftsman can make.

They haven´t been around in bakeries for ages. Bakeries just get frozen or premixed ingedients and throw them into an oven. It´s really sad. At least here in Germany. The best bread you get by making it yourself. It is cheap and easy.

Different story where I live. We are fortunate enough to have still two “Meisterbetriebe” that don’t touch pre mixed stuff with a 2eter stick. Believe me I know them both very well.

I like to bake bread! But I frequently use a bread machine to handle the dull chores of blending and proofing if I’m just making a single loaf.