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

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

#221

Post by legulere »

flarg wrote: post #183
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…

You're missing a trick I think ... Why not do an IKEA style build-it-yourself burger operation, where food is cooked and deposited into a box with how-to-build-your-burger instructions printed on top. The perfect personalised burger experience! We might even get websites that sell McD hacks that you can add to your self build burger experience! I mean, what is the real MVP for McD? It's sourcing, uni-forming, storing…

Like the 1€ Hotdogs at IKEA?

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

#222

Post by sct202 »

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…

Robots are great for repetitive tasks that have low variability like industrial parts that are almost exactly identical to spec. But when things aren't exactly to spec, I'm not sure that the robots would be easily able to recover with where the tech is today. Like let's say a slightly customized order, few buns stick together, something falls, tomatos are slightly more mushy than normal, or isn't loaded to the machine exactly right.

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

#223

Post by carlmr »

WalterBright wrote: post #173
woutr_be wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Hong Kong, every McDonalds has 3+ touch screens, I hardly see anyone lining up at the counter these days. I for one only use the touch screens.

I use the McD touch screens. It works, but it takes about 30 clicks to buy something. Also, I was flummoxed until I figured out that [Add To Order] actually means "I'm done, I want to pay now". I suppose all this was extensively play-tested, but I have no idea what sort of person play tested it given the result.

Yeah, I also find usability sucks, so I usually go to the register if the line isn't too long.

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

#224

Post by carlmr »

creato wrote: post #121
arthurfm wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like touching the screens either. https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/28/poo-found-on-every-mcdonalds-... Traces of faeces have been found on every single McDonald’s touchscreen swabbed in an investigation by metro.co.uk. Samples were taken from the new machines that have been rolled out at restaurants across the country – every one of them had coliforms. Senior lecturer in microbiology at London Metropolitan Univers…

I think I've heard this ("there's poop on it") about everything. Keyboards, doorknobs, kitchen sinks, toothbrushes, etc. Either it's simply not true, or it is true and it doesn't matter.

I think it's true, but you have an immune system that makes this largely irrelevant.

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

#225

Post by shantly »

alexmlamb wrote: post #149
shantly wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The couple I've seen have had bad menus (what? Options? I just want the damn thing like usual, there are options? I don't care, where the hell is the "just buy it like normal" button?) and have suffered from the same jank that every non-Apple touchscreen I've used has, somewhere on the medium-bad side of that spectrum. Feels like HTML+JS running on Android, which is very possibly exactly what it is. Missed touches, a…

I've used the McDonalds one in Canada and it seemed pretty good. I think the "options" button is partially an upsell, since they want to try to advertise extra stuff.

Maybe they're A/B testing or they've changed. The ones I've seen took you through a screen or two of options and such before adding whatever you'd selected to your order, with the "just friggin' add it" button far less obviously placed than it should have been. Also took some thinking to figure out where certain things might be in the menu.

[EDIT] My experience is muddling through the process once the first time I saw one just to see what it was like, but it definitely took several times as long as just walking up and ordering (and all I ordered was a coffee), and watching my wife try to use one on a family trip, spend about ~2x as long as it would have taken to just order at the counter, curse at it, give up, walk over and order at the counter.

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

#226

Post by SECProto »

hnick wrote: post #150
SECProto wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was there some other short story about a similar concept (AI managed fast food workers)? Something by Stallman or Doctorow maybe? I have vague deja-vu at that story, but from much longer ago than 2017, when Manna was published.

It's from 2003. I guess the copyright notice became a hassle to update after 2017 :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna_(novel)

That explains it, thanks!

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

#227

Post by jmkni »

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…

I use the phone app every time I go through the Mcdonalds drive thru (in the UK). I order on my phone, drive up, give them the order number.

This is already a thing. The only thing it's missing is number plate recognition, so I don't need to talk to anybody.

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

#228

Post by joezydeco »

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…

Some parts of the cooking have been automated for a long time. For example, nobody flips burgers anymore. They're placed on a clamshell grill that cooks both sides at the same time and releases when it's done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mj7_a1Egew

The next step will be loading the products into the grill and unloading them automatically...and that's already in the works.

But robot assembly of sandwiches is a long way off. Humans are way more flexible and efficient here. The key is removing the repetitive tasks from their workload.

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

#229

Post by mc_blue »

all_blue_chucks wrote: post #116
p1necone wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I could get that right, what does "only cheese" mean exactly?

It's just an order for gluten-free/keto burger and salad with no toppings other than cheese. Plus some tenders.

I actually don't think tenders is included in the order... I think they just ordered the ranch dip cups you would get if you ordered nuggets.

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

#230

Post by [deleted] »

SECProto wrote: post #67
vallismortis wrote: post #22

Welcome Manna. https://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

Was there some other short story about a similar concept (AI managed fast food workers)? Something by Stallman or Doctorow maybe? I have vague deja-vu at that story, but from much longer ago than 2017, when Manna was published.

[deleted]
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