Readers who religiously track the origin, blend, and temperature of their professionally-pulled morning espresso shots might want to turn away from this one. This week, the first test-run of a new vending machine service called Briggo Coffee Hauses (designed in conjunction with Yves Behar and his Fuseproject group) launched in Austin, Texas. Would you trust a robot to make your beloved morning Macchiato?

Briggo Coffee Haus

Similar to other ‘Smart’ services of the hour, Briggo customers can purchase directly through their smartphone app or a touchscreen on the vending machine itself. From a user experience perspective, the Briggo machine itself presents an interesting challenge: How do you recreate an experience based on trust (as in…have you ever heard somebody throw a fit at Starbucks because there wasn’t enough caramel syrup in their drink?) with a robot? Briggo’s coffee options are fully customizable and dispensed in to-go cups with options ranging from various ‘real’ espresso types to a full line of flavored syrups. It appears that this isn’t your typical ‘$.75 Poker Cup with a plastic sliding door coffee vending machine‘ either—the whole concept is based on an artisanal-meets smart device approach:

“We believe the overall coffee experience must include convenience and predictability. Our Coffee Haus creates artisan coffee drinks 24/7 with a level of accuracy never before seen in the coffee world, and the automated ordering system via the Briggo mobile website streamlines the process. Our customers easily, quickly get their favorite coffee the exact same way, every single time, without any hassle or wait.”
-Kevin Nater, Briggo CEO

The big question though: Unlike Starbucks, will it get your name right when your order is ready?