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Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

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201–210 of 237 posts

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standing in line at McDonalds, to pick up an online order, made me think that maybe the drive thru isn't that great of an idea during rush hours. The staff needs to handle orders in a very specific sequence, to get the cars moving, meaning that they'll need to priorities drive thru orders. Wolt/DoorDash impose the same problem to an extend. I've notice that orders from in restaurant customers is frequently seems to b…

> Standing in line at McDonalds, to pick up an online order Oh, mine lets you order online and then pick up in the drive through.

Mine does that as well, but it's like a five minute walk or two minutes on a bike, and I'd feel silly walking through the drive thru.

It's not my impression that online ordering for pick-up is massively popular here. We do it, because out side rush hours we can order, walk straight over and our food will be done a few minutes after we get there.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#202
post #14

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…

I'm very curious as to whether it'd listen or it's design even let's it listen to you if you tell it to stop upselling at the onset.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standing in line at McDonalds, to pick up an online order, made me think that maybe the drive thru isn't that great of an idea during rush hours. The staff needs to handle orders in a very specific sequence, to get the cars moving, meaning that they'll need to priorities drive thru orders. Wolt/DoorDash impose the same problem to an extend. I've notice that orders from in restaurant customers is frequently seems to b…

I think the big problem DoorDash and the like have, is they obfuscate the capacity connection between real restaurants. In the real world, if you drive up to a McDonalds, and there's a line around the building for drive-thru, you can make a decision. (Is it worth the long wait, or not?) . In the real world, if you go to a sit-down restaurant, and they're full, they simply turn you away (often with a buzzer or a text…

There is a Starbucks in downtown Chicago that is always empty, but has a 30 minute wait due to online orders.

It is incredibly frustrating cause you have to wait while they fulfill online orders.

They should have priority queues to ensure that certain order types take priority

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a StarBucks near me that takes about 3-4 minutes per car at the drive thru. Frequently there would be 3-6 cars in line. Yes, people literally wait 15-20 minutes in line before they can even order, much less get their order. Sure, maybe they’re just inefficient and shouldn’t be rewarded. However the people there are indeed working feverishly (and paid poorly). Going inside and ordering isn’t any faster. I’d pu…

I got trapped in a Burger King drive thru for half an hour. Car parked in front of me, cars stuck behind me, concrete barrier on the right keeping me from pulling away. No clue what they were holding on, no apology once they got to the window, nothing. Emailing RBI got an empty response back on top of refusing to provide a refund for the order or any kind of customer recovery. At least my bank won the chargeback.

What is the deal with trapping you in anyway?

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#205
post #14

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…

I'm optimistic that the ease of enforcing rules like this and better customer data (maybe via the apps) will lead to a better format. The annoyance grows from the rules causing us to be prompted to do or respond to things we don't want or need. When the taco bell guy asks if I want to add sour cream for the third time, I am getting pretty annoyed. I don't like sour cream, period. But every time they hit me with "would you like to double the chicken", even if I wasn't a yes upon driving to the window, I cave when they ask and both parties are probably happier for it. Management isn't totally wrong here because there are upsells that all of us would take when presented at the right time. It's a bit like ad targeting. Its just happening in realtime at the window.

So the problem in my mind is the format. How do you not ask 3 questions with every dish? Maybe the screens can help. Now that you have an AI that can follow the rules always and likely follow more complex decision trees quickly "at the window", it reasonable chains could start to dial in how this works to be more targeted and active vs passive at the right times.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems very lonely to live such a hermetic existence.

What's hermetic about listening to music you like?

in a sense (no pun intended), you're sealing yourself off from "the real world" when you listen to podcasts/music on headphones in public.

i used to be a major headphone user but as i've gotten older, i really don't like to isolate myself like that when in public. i've started to enjoy just living in the moment a lot more than when i was younger, and i don't like to appear as antisocial as i often feel, because i actually feel a lot better about myself when i interact with the people around me instead of gliding through life trying to avoid notice.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#207
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the solution is more AI: to replace c-suit.

That is indeed a great solution that will never happen.

Let's make sure we're living in a somewhat egalitarian society and our systems are aligned with that, shall we?

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh central ohio, well in that case it's definitely everyone else that is wrong

Or maybe you and everyone else is of a certain age that y'all need to get your hearing checked more frequently.

right again! logically we all need hearing aids specifically for drive-thrus

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#210
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

AIs are not resilient against deliberate attacks, even if you use multiple different models.

Maybe they shouldn't work w/ customers then, retail workers have to deal w/ hostile customers all the time.
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