Automated café sets up shop in tech-crazy, fancy coffee-loving San Francisco

A robot from Cafe-X allows the customer to order a drink from an app or the tablet on site. A PIN is sent to the customer's phone, then entered on a keypad on a tablet attached to the machine. (David Butow/CafeX/TNS)

SAN FRANCISCO: As Katy Franco waited for her morning coffee, passersby pulled out their phones and snapped photos and video of her barista. 

A man in his 20s did a double take, recorded the scene on his iPhone and posted it to Instagram. Another woman drifted toward the barista and asked no one in particular: "What's going on here?"