First automated teller machines deployed in the 1960s were heavily coated in expensive wood paneling and highly polished metal just to visually convince deeply suspicious banking…

A closer look

First automated teller machines deployed in the 1960s were heavily coated in expensive wood paneling and highly polished metal just to visually convince deeply suspicious banking customers that the contraption was actually a premium financial experience instead of a mechanical scam, because executives strongly believed that respectable citizens would never trust a cold robot with their hard-earned money, contrasting beautifully with today where we are completely terrified of having to actually walk inside a physical bank branch and make brief excruciating small talk with a human teller just to forcefully deposit a paper birthday check from our grandmother into a modern checking account