The winding hallways and storage rooms found on the level are filled with dusty
artifacts from Taco Bell's past. Most of the items you'll come across down there are as insignificant as old stockpiles of Styrofoam cups. But look hard enough, and you just might also unearth the fast-food equivalent of the Ark of the Covenant.
When Matt Prince, PR Manager at Taco Bell, stumbled into a giant chrome monstrosity in the depths of corporate HQ a few weeks ago, he knew it wasn't just any old forgotten relic. He suspected the machine might be… it.
"I've heard rumors about the machine before," Prince said. "It was just sitting in one of the corners of our development lab. I bet 98% of the people that work here never ventured down here, and I bet the 2% that did never thought this thing was anything more than a storage unit."
After hearing whispers from former employees that a machine designed to make tacos automatically was lurking somewhere inside Taco Bell HQ, Prince felt compelled to scour the basement in search of the unit. "Until I actually saw it with my own eyes, I didn't believe it really existed," he said.
This is the story of Taco Bell's Automatic Taco Machine -- an early experiment in restaurant automation that burned bright for one brief year, then fizzled into fast-food obscurity. This is the cautionary tale of the Taco-Matic, one of Taco Bell's boldest experiments completely lost to the annals of time. Until now. https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/taco-bell-tacos-maker-machine/food-and-drink
