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Pacmanlives ,

Still order like grandpa. I go in and want to talk to a human and order. I hate those gross ass touchscreens. I am probably a minority especially in my age group and working in tech

StitchIsABitch ,

Always wondered why anyone would rather talk to a person than take their time, have a nice overview of the menu, and pay in advance. I guess they are gross though.

CodingCarpenter ,

The only time I would rather not talk to a person is if the accent causes a language barrier. Otherwise 9 times out of 10 a person is going to understand what you want better especially if it’s a customization issue

Lost_My_Mind ,

The only time I would rather not talk to a person is if the accent causes a language barrier.

“Gobble gobble goo?”

“Uhhhh…I’m sorry?”

“Gobble…gobble…goo?”

“…what?”

“GOBBLE GOBBLE GOO!!!”

“I have no idea what you mean by that…”

Guy behind you in line: “c’mon man!!! Pay attention! He’s saying CAN I HELP YOU?”

“Really? Those phonetic sounds were supposed to be in any way similar to the thing you said? It’s not even close…”

“English is probably his second language. How well do you speak THEIR language?”

“Which language do you speak?”

“Yjxrjk#@■♡○{rjbzwk!”

“I’m done.”

WarlordSdocy ,

At least in my experience I have more customization issues when taking to people rather than using an app or going through a kiosk. The only time it’s the other way around is when they don’t include an option I want on the digital version but that’s becoming less and less common for me at least. The number of times I’ve had orders just missing customization things I asked for but they didn’t hear or forgot to enter is much higher when I go through the drive through or go in person then when I do it through something digital.

Cryophilia ,

Where I live there’s loads of heavily accented people so language is a massive barrier. Some of the employees don’t even speak English.

trollblox_ ,

just use your knuckle

timbuck2themoon ,

Because I’m at a fast food place in the first place because my time is important and I don’t want to waste it ordering.

That and the guy taking orders does it 1000x a day and i can easily order that way instead of me navigating ten different menus just to order a simple meal for my family.

I’m OK with my old man status at this point. Tech is good when it improves things for the consumer. The kiosks seem to just improve the company bottom line IMO.

kevincox ,
@kevincox@lemmy.ml avatar

I am a touch screen enjoyer. At least in theory. I like having time to browse, look at pictures, easy access to customization options and most importantly no feeling of pressure. I am not spending a cashier’s time and potentially blocking someone behind me (at least there is usually less of a line for the self-ordering).

However there are negatives for sure. My biggest annoyance is that these devices are often annoyingly slow and unresponsive. They just display a tiny bit of text and images, they should switch between screens at 60fps, not 2s per click. Also if I know what I want it is often faster to tell the cashier and let them enter the order (on their more expert-optimized and less laggy keypad).

WarlordSdocy ,

This is why I tend to just use the mobile apps for places to order. Not laggy and gives the benefits you mentioned of using a touch screen kiosk. A lot of them you don’t even need an account to use the app which is nice if that’s something that bothers you.

kevincox ,
@kevincox@lemmy.ml avatar

Yeah, I like this style but don’t want their apps installed on my phone. A few places have mobile sites which is excellent, I know what access it has and it is shut down completely when I close the tab.

kescusay ,
@kescusay@lemmy.world avatar

But what if they want to notify you about great deals and coupons? DON’T YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT GREAT DEALS AND COUPONS?!?

kevincox ,
@kevincox@lemmy.ml avatar

Basically yes. But also they can do that via email or web push notifications. Not that I would allow either.

WarlordSdocy ,

I just don’t give notification permissions to most apps unless I actually care about notifications from it.

slumberlust ,

There’s a reason everyone and their brother want you to install an app these days.

jmp242 ,

The apps are super slow though. Like I don’t need a 5 second animation of bouncing fries every time I do anything. Dunkin is another offender.

ShepherdPie ,

I find this a bit odd as you make it seem as if ordering is a complicated process that takes some thought and planning. The whole draw of McDonalds is that you get the exact same food wherever you may be and their options are fairly limited. Ham/cheeseburger, chicken burger, fish sandwich, or nuggets is pretty much your array of options.

I personally dislike the ordering screens as they make the process way to drawn out. Let me just pick a #1, the size, and the drink and be done with it in 3 taps. Last time I used one, it wanted me to basically build my own meal as if I was ordering Dominoes online and building my own pizza.

kevincox ,
@kevincox@lemmy.ml avatar

As I said if you know what you want the cashier is usually faster and easier. However I don’t eat at any single fast food place very often. So even if I know sort of what I want I don’t remember exactly what toppings, flavours and sizes are available. If I was ordering I would probably just pick whatever common order I would expect can work, but I appreciate that I can see a list of options and do a bit of browsing.

spongebue ,

their options are fairly limited. Ham/cheeseburger, chicken burger, fish sandwich, or nuggets is pretty much your array of options

You must not have been to a McDonald’s in a while. Do you want that chicken sandwich grilled or crispy? Spicy? Are we talking the basic value sammich you can wolf down before you leave the parking lot, or the bigger one that comes in a cardboard box? The one with bacon and ranch, or one of the others? Did you want a combo meal? Lettuce is stupid filler on a sandwich, do you want to skip that?

CalcProgrammer1 ,
@CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml avatar

Also, explicit confirmation of your customizations and of your order. You can double check yourself to make sure it’s all correct before submitting the order while the distracted and overworked employee at the counter could hit the wrong button or skip a customization and you often wouldn’t know until you receive the wrong item. Then you have to create more work for the workers to get your order remade.

amelia ,

They just display a tiny bit of text and images, they should switch between screens at 60fps, not 2s per click.

I think this is intentional. They want you to take time looking at the pictures so you might think “you know what, actually I’d like some of those fries as well” by making it hard to just quickly select what you want and leave.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if there’s a psychological effect where you feel like ordering more makes this tedious ordering process more worthy. I mean why go through 2 minutes of clicking and waiting just for one stupid cheeseburger.

kromem ,

A lot of people seem to be misinterpreting the headline given the content of the article:

It told Restaurant Business it was testing whether the voice ordering chatbot could speed up service and that the test left it confident “that a voice-ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.”

This is just saying that they are ending their 2021 partnership with IBM for AI drive thru.

Not that they are abandoning AI for drive thru.

megopie ,

I suspect that even if they were abandoning future plans for AI drive through ordering, they wouldn’t say they were. Saying you’re not doing anything with AI might actually hurt a companies share price right now.

obviouspornalt ,

Drive through seems like a great proving ground. Record every drive through customer / cashier interaction. Match each recording up with the transaction entered into the register. Train a model by having the model “listen” to the recording to predict what the order should look like, then match it to the items on the transaction receipt.

Then, phase 1 of implementation is to use the model in real time by listening to the live conversation at the drive through, predicting what it thinks the order should be, then prompting the cashier to double-check the order to see if the human made a mistake entering the order if the prediction doesn’t match.

Phase 2 is human-supervised, where the order taking system interacts directly with the customer to take the order, the human checks the result, and is able to step in / take over if there’s a mistake or a special case the order system can’t handle.

Phase 3 is “fuck your entry level employment” and no human is monitoring the system.

All 3 phases seem completely doable to me at this point, depending on how much backlash MCD is willing to deal with.

greenskye ,

Maybe I’m just really good with talking to robots, but the AI drivethru voice at my local McDonald’s is way, way, way more accurate than basically all of the employees they used to have running it before. A few times it’s been down for whatever reason and an actual human takes my order and I remember how shit they are at their jobs when they get my order wrong yet again, or can’t hear me, or talk with gum in their mouths or whatever.

pewgar_seemsimandroid ,

not tacobell.

Etterra ,

Translation: the AI was worse at it than even Drunk Steve after a 3-day bender.

Evotech ,

Ai, pretty good. Speach recognition software. Still trash

TexasDrunk ,

Hey, leave Drunk Steve out of this. He did nothing wrong.

sunzu ,

Ohh damn are they going back to filthy organics?

homesweethomeMrL ,

AI so bad it can’t get your burger order right.

No wonder people are sinking hundreds of billions into it. As opposed to, say, education.

cornshark ,

Why would we need education if there aren’t going to be any jobs to do?

homesweethomeMrL ,

It’s one of those mysteries. Maybe we should ask an educated person.

Lost_My_Mind ,

They’ve redirected your call to an untrained AI that just keeps saying “Hello??? Hello??? Hello???”

Because thats all it ever hears before people hang up on it. So thats sll the language they know.

Sabata11792 ,

It’s McDonald’s, no amount of humans or technology will get your order right.

Lost_My_Mind ,

Eh…AI messes my order. Some dumbass teenager messes up my order. Whats the difference?

I wouldn’t call it the MAIN reason I no longer go get fast food…but maybe like the lower end of the top 10 reasons I gave up fast food years ago.

At least the dumbass teenager isn’t putting glue on a pizza. Although in my area they will use the pepperoni placement to make a swastica on your pizza…or put their bare feet into the lettice of the burger king lettice bins. I mean sure, THOSE guys got fired, but how many other stories DON’T make the news???

homesweethomeMrL ,

Eh…AI messes my order. Some dumbass teenager messes up my order. Whats the difference?

I mean, I can think of a couple.

Squiddly ,

I stopped going to BK because they ALWAYS messed up my order. I finally had it and never went back. I bet the ai is more competent than my local BK. What makes this story more sad is I rarely get fast food, mainly as a treat, and fucking BK always messed it up.

mercator_rejection ,

For similar reasons, I stopped ordering with any alterations at all. I used to customize order a little and they always messed it up. It’s pretty rare that I go at all, but I figure that way it’s the standard meal and they can just go in autopilot making it. Less disappointment when things go wrong

ID411 ,

Costs more than people I expect…

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

If your local McDonald’s has been getting your order confidently wrong with an AI chatbot at the drive-thru, I have good news for you: The company is ending the program for now.

The company told franchisees that it’s winding down an AI drive-thru ordering partnership with IBM “no later than July 26th, 2024,” according to trade publication Restaurant Business.

Bloomberg reported that the deal was partly for a chatbot named “Ask Pickles” that employees could use for guidance on things like cleaning ice cream machines.

Even so, Google partnered with Wendy’s, which started testing drive-thru AI based on its tech last year and has since expanded that trial.

And Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, and others use an AI drive-through chatbot that an SEC filing revealed was underpinned by remote human workers in the Philippines most of the time.

The company also offers things like mobile ordering and in-store kiosks and has tested drone deliveries, kitchen robots, and weird AI hiring tools.

The original article contains 291 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 45%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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