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Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

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Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#21

Post by beerandt »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #2

Mind boggling that they would roll it out at scale without testing. Using open ended natural language to make a multiple choice selection (choose a taco) seems like a way to massively complicate a simple problem. What next - have a humanoid robot bring the food out to the car? Looking forward to more "AI Darwin Award" stories!

The follow up question (not quite mc) was actually what put it in a loop for me-

It kept asking 'what kind of drink?' After apparently interpreting engine noise as asking for one.

Wouldn't respond to 'none' or any other response I gave, except to repeat the q.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#22

Post by sneak »

akerl_ wrote: post #16

I’m shocked that anybody with a smartphone is still ordering by talking into a voice box, regardless of whether it’s a human or an AI on the other end. There’s a Starbucks near me that is pickup-only. You mobile order, and inside there’s just a rack where the employees set out drinks as they’re made. Walking inside felt like I’d stepped into a glorious alternate reality.

You can’t pay in cash via an app.

An alternate reality where nobody can transact without the state seeing it in realtime and having a veto over it (without any burden of proof) is not glorious; that’s called a dystopia.

Just because the capability has never been leveled at you personally doesn’t mean that’s a world in which you wish to live.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#23

Post by sneak »

jameslk wrote: post #15

When the AI gladly accepts orders that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or 18,000 cups of water, it’s probably not production ready https://youtube.com/shorts/FDZj6DCWlfc https://www.tiktok.com/@90daygrinder/video/75355084374472983... (another example from a different chain)

This is solved easily by one additional sanity check API call to a different AI. I’m not sure why people think these bugs are like, complete showstopper insurmountable things. It’s a quick fix.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#24

Post by blibble »

eco wrote: post #14
josephwegner wrote: post #5

I will say, there is a Wendy’s near me that is piloting an AI drive-thru experience, and I prefer it 10-to-1 to the human version. It had a clear voice, it didn’t disappear randomly, it understood what I meant the first time (even though I was speaking naturally - I didn’t know at first it was AI), and it asked me for feedback (“what sort of sauce?”) in a very understandable way. Drive-thrus are famously a bad experi…

I've had two interactions with Wendy's AI drive-through, and the first time I was pleasantly surprised, but the second time it would not stop suggesting add-ons after every single thing I said. It was comically pushy. A human would have pretty quickly picked up on my increasingly exasperated "no, thanks" and stopped doing it, but the AI was completely blind to my growing frustration, following the upsell directive wi…

seems they took Dude, Where's My Car as an inspiration?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkdyU_eUm1U

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#25

Post by bluedino »

sneak wrote: post #22
akerl_ wrote: post #16

I’m shocked that anybody with a smartphone is still ordering by talking into a voice box, regardless of whether it’s a human or an AI on the other end. There’s a Starbucks near me that is pickup-only. You mobile order, and inside there’s just a rack where the employees set out drinks as they’re made. Walking inside felt like I’d stepped into a glorious alternate reality.

You can’t pay in cash via an app. An alternate reality where nobody can transact without the state seeing it in realtime and having a veto over it (without any burden of proof) is not glorious; that’s called a dystopia. Just because the capability has never been leveled at you personally doesn’t mean that’s a world in which you wish to live.

Buy a gift card across the street at CVS. Literally had to do that before.

I would have just bought food at the CVS but they were closing that location and didn't have much left.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#26

Post by throwaway314155 »

akerl_ wrote: post #16

I’m shocked that anybody with a smartphone is still ordering by talking into a voice box, regardless of whether it’s a human or an AI on the other end. There’s a Starbucks near me that is pickup-only. You mobile order, and inside there’s just a rack where the employees set out drinks as they’re made. Walking inside felt like I’d stepped into a glorious alternate reality.

The apps that are deliberately designed to lure you in with deals/coupons so that they can more accurately track you and likely sell this data to data brokers?

I'm shocked that anybody with a hacker news account is still making comments this naive.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#27

Post by seanmcdirmid »

akerl_ wrote: post #16

I’m shocked that anybody with a smartphone is still ordering by talking into a voice box, regardless of whether it’s a human or an AI on the other end. There’s a Starbucks near me that is pickup-only. You mobile order, and inside there’s just a rack where the employees set out drinks as they’re made. Walking inside felt like I’d stepped into a glorious alternate reality.

China has mobile ordering to the next level. Every McDonald’s has a set of two sided lockers, you just scan your order QR code and the locker your order is in opens…no human contact what so ever.

In the USA, McDonald’s app is pretty bad compared to Starbucks at least. Nowhere near where it is in China (well, if you do the wechat plugin). I find it isn’t worth the trouble and will just use the kiosk for the rare times I still go there.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#28

Post by reaperducer »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #27
akerl_ wrote: post #16

I’m shocked that anybody with a smartphone is still ordering by talking into a voice box, regardless of whether it’s a human or an AI on the other end. There’s a Starbucks near me that is pickup-only. You mobile order, and inside there’s just a rack where the employees set out drinks as they’re made. Walking inside felt like I’d stepped into a glorious alternate reality.

China has mobile ordering to the next level. Every McDonald’s has a set of two sided lockers, you just scan your order QR code and the locker your order is in opens…no human contact what so ever. In the USA, McDonald’s app is pretty bad compared to Starbucks at least. Nowhere near where it is in China (well, if you do the wechat plugin). I find it isn’t worth the trouble and will just use the kiosk for the rare times…

Every McDonald’s has a set of two sided lockers, you just scan your order QR code and the locker your order is in opens…no human contact what so ever.

Little Caesar's had this in the States at least as far back as 2016, when I first ran across it.

I wonder if you still order a pizza from the Hut by texting a pizza emoji?

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#29

Post by stephenlindauer »

nickthegreek wrote: post #18
akerl_ wrote: post #16

I’m shocked that anybody with a smartphone is still ordering by talking into a voice box, regardless of whether it’s a human or an AI on the other end. There’s a Starbucks near me that is pickup-only. You mobile order, and inside there’s just a rack where the employees set out drinks as they’re made. Walking inside felt like I’d stepped into a glorious alternate reality.

I’m shocked that anybody with a smartphone is installing tracking fast food mobile apps, creating accounts, giving emails, and even enabling notifications. Another capitalistic hellscape flimsly masquerading as a great deal for you.

Different folks have different levels of acceptable risk. I generally agree, and won’t install an app for every single one-time purchase, but I eat a lot of Taco Bell. The app makes sense for me. Many other companies also have web interfaces so you don’t NEED to install an app. (Many restaurants/bars that have a Qr Code on the table act this way.)

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#30

Post by akerl_ »

twodave wrote: post #20
akerl_ wrote: post #16

I’m shocked that anybody with a smartphone is still ordering by talking into a voice box, regardless of whether it’s a human or an AI on the other end. There’s a Starbucks near me that is pickup-only. You mobile order, and inside there’s just a rack where the employees set out drinks as they’re made. Walking inside felt like I’d stepped into a glorious alternate reality.

It depends on the establishment, but some of us (actually I sort of doubt it’s a minority) rather enjoy speaking with other humans, even strangers, and even if it’s over an intercom.

I enjoy talking with humans, but not the part where I’m reciting an order and making them record it.
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