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McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

bbc.com

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Re: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

#71

Post by snaptravisty »

loceng wrote: post #43
devoply wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Article you posted is mostly P/R fluff. I would prefer a human taking my order. Automating this stuff has 2 benefits, reduced costs while still selling over-priced sub-par food. Second, being able to upsell using video and voice technology. Are either of these good for consumers, not particularly. Nor are they good for employees. They are potentially good for management and ownership. That's pretty sad outcome to all…

I think you should take your analysis a bit further. Freeing up human time by using machines is amazing, the issue is distributing resources - which is what Presidential candidate Andrew Yang's #1 policy of UBI ("Freedom Dividend" as he's branded it) will do - and paid for via a 10% VAT tax, so companies like Amazon who paid $0 in taxes last year can't avoid taxes. Allowing management, owners, innovators to maximize…

If I'm not mistaken, the VAT is a consumption tax that is paid for by the consumer and collected by the companies for the government. It's not a tax paid by companies.

I assume such a tax would replace the local state based sales taxes?

Having said that when I was in the US, it was very frustrating to never know how much something would cost me based on the advertised price.

Re: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

#72

Post by rangibaby »

hirundo wrote: post #15

Next they'll come for the cooks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKCVol2iWcc There are ~487k fast food cooks employed at ~$22.6k average wages. That's more than an $11 billion annual incentive to bring robochefs to retail. And that's just fast food, just in the US. Robo janitors may take a bit longer. Maybe they can design automated kitchens that work like jumbo dish washers. Seal, flood, heat, drain, reopen. The jan…

We saved billions of dollars with automation! Why is no one buying our products anymore? Hmm, it must be because they are spending all their money on avocados!

I think the only way to go is to do basic income funded by an automation tax. Henry Ford knew that people needed enough money to actually buy his cars and made it happen with high wages.

Re: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

#74

Post by aczerepinski »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #52
tracker1 wrote: post #11

"Double Quarter Pounder, just the sandwich, only cheese, no bun. Two side salads no croutons, no dressing, two dip cups of ranch for nuggets. Large diet dr pepper, easy ice." Lets see if the AI can get that right more often than their staff can.

"Can I substitute the Artisan Grilled Chicken Sandwich for the Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich in Meal #6 if I don't get the fries?" "Can I get a burger with two patties?" Personally I usually just order what's on the menu but there must be lots of people asking for substitutions or modifications. That's the general public for you. I wonder how this "AI" is going to handle it. Probably it will just pass the order…

This is where the engineers have an opportunity to hide the best easter eggs.

Re: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

#75

Post by mankyd »

tracker1 wrote: post #11

"Double Quarter Pounder, just the sandwich, only cheese, no bun. Two side salads no croutons, no dressing, two dip cups of ranch for nuggets. Large diet dr pepper, easy ice." Lets see if the AI can get that right more often than their staff can.

Honestly, I expect that would be the easy part.

The hard part is:

"Can you put [specific toy] in the kids meal?"

"Wait, no, I want ketchup on that. I mean, mustard."

"Can you bring it out to me when its ready?"

"Your ice machine is broken?"

"My debit card doesn't have much money on it, so just ring up my order until it hits $20."

Taking an order is totally doable. Answering questions that require stateful knowledge is hard.

Re: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

#76

Post by [deleted] »

cbhl wrote: post #53
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like McDonalds is making the same mistake the automobile companies made with their infotainment systems, cutting corners to save on hardware and just being too inexperienced on software. The infotainment systems of the past couple of years have been a huge improvement over those of the past decade so maybe McDonalds and the food service industry in general will just have to go through the same painful process…

What I don't understand is why the McDonald's mobile apps are region-locked. If I am an American and I visit Canada or Japan, why do I have to use the register or kiosk? I should be able to use mobile ordering, just like back home.

[deleted]

Re: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

#77

Post by dgzl »

snaptravisty wrote: post #71
loceng wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you should take your analysis a bit further. Freeing up human time by using machines is amazing, the issue is distributing resources - which is what Presidential candidate Andrew Yang's #1 policy of UBI ("Freedom Dividend" as he's branded it) will do - and paid for via a 10% VAT tax, so companies like Amazon who paid $0 in taxes last year can't avoid taxes. Allowing management, owners, innovators to maximize…

If I'm not mistaken, the VAT is a consumption tax that is paid for by the consumer and collected by the companies for the government. It's not a tax paid by companies. I assume such a tax would replace the local state based sales taxes? Having said that when I was in the US, it was very frustrating to never know how much something would cost me based on the advertised price.

> I assume such a tax would replace the local state based sales taxes?

Probably not. Government's aren't keen on reducing tax.

Re: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

#78

Post by mattkrause »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #36
jumelles wrote: post #18

"What drinks do you have?" "Can I get combo without the drink?" "How much cheaper is it with a water?" "My kid wants the rainbow Happy Meal toy, can we have that one please?" "What time did you stop serving breakfast?" "Do you still have McFlurries? What flavors are there?" This won't go well.

Yeah, because the same machines that wiped the floor with a 9-dan Go champion a couple of years ago will be completely flummoxed by people placing orders at McDonald's.

They’re totally different domains. McDonald’s orders don’t have the crazy branching structure of Go, but they also aren’t nearly so self-contained.

Re: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

#79

Post by [deleted] »

cavisne wrote: post #70

I wonder if mcdonalds records/retains the audio from its drive through systems. Seems like a goldmine of validation data thats already labelled (with the order the employee entered). Voice with some minor interaction seems like a much better solution for the kiosks as well. "Large Big mac meal" is a lot quicker than clicking through a kiosk.

[deleted]

Re: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice gen in its US drive-throughs

#80

Post by 51Cards »

ineedasername wrote: post #56

Lots of people here are saying they should just use a phone app. I see it as problematic to require drivers, even those stopped at a drive through, (you don't generally put your car in park) to use their phone. There are laws against it, and they don't have exclusions for drive through ordering. I'm not even sure that a McDonalds policy that said "put it in park" would pass legal review since the car is on and you're…

They already have a phone app though. You order on your phone then pull into one of the pickup slots, note in the app which slot you're in and your food is brought out to you. Has been here in Canada for awhile now.
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