Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

aidarwinawards.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 237 posts

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#171

Post by JKCalhoun »

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 agree — but prefer to stand across a counter from them rather than talk through a grille.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#173

Post by JKCalhoun »

akerl_ wrote: post #41
throwaway314155 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I said mobile ordering and you transmogrified it to “apps”, but I’ll play along with the strawman. Yes, those apps. It turns out it’s pretty easy to just turn off notifications for them.

Death by a thousand opt-outs.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#175

Post by 542354234235 »

sneak wrote: post #42
bluedino wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can’t buy gift cards without soft ID these days. Additionally, the ability to pay in cash isn’t needed for buying coffee, it’s needed for paying for legal defense, publishing, transport, and a bunch of other things. The issue isn’t that Starbucks is cashless; the issue is that when all of society goes cashless (because places like Starbucks did) then we are all capital-f Fucked. Imagine a world without investigat…

>You can’t buy gift cards without soft ID these days.

This is 100% false. I do gift card reselling and buy 6 figures worth of gift cards per year. Sometimes places like Dollar General require ID, but CVS, Staples, Grocery Stores, etc. almost never ask for ID. When they do it is to match to the name on the credit card to prevent people buying gift cards with stolen credits cards, not to enter into any sort of tracking database. You can easily buy hundreds of dollars of gift cards in a single transaction with no ID check if using cash.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#176

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #4
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!

I agree, that would be just under 6% of all taco bells. The should have done a few in each region.

I can't imagine that people having fun messing with it, putting in ridiculous orders would be region specific.

Has anyone here tried it and know how it works ? If I order 6 large pizzas with a topping of rocks, will that come up on the screen ?

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#177

Post by iinnPP »

bboygravity wrote: post #149
potato3732842 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the speed limit problem. Everyone who's detached from reality whether an MBA in HQ or some two bit in the internet comment section who fancies themselves a central planner thinks that the problem is the people on the ground not following "the rules" when in reality "the rules", in just about any situation where there are rules are crap if followed and often themselves are knowingly crap written in response to ot…

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

That is indeed a great solution that will never happen.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#178

Post by dfxm12 »

gdbsjjdn wrote: post #155

I don't understand the appeal of drive throughs?s? In my area there are dozens of people idling for 10-15 minutes in the Starbucks drive through even though we have a municipal "no idling" bylaw to reduce emissions. The line is so long it interferes with traffic on the street. It also seems like sitting in your car inhaling CO from other people's tailpipes for 15 minutes is bad for you? Many of the local fast food pl…

On a personal level I don't understand why consumers prefer drive-through

If you've got kids/dogs in the car with you, it could be a bigger hassle or not possible to go inside. This is probably a very small number of people actually using the drive through though.

When I'm on my own, I always find it a better experience to go in myself.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#179

Post by gdbsjjdn »

IAmBroom wrote: post #168
gdbsjjdn wrote: post #155

I don't understand the appeal of drive throughs?s? In my area there are dozens of people idling for 10-15 minutes in the Starbucks drive through even though we have a municipal "no idling" bylaw to reduce emissions. The line is so long it interferes with traffic on the street. It also seems like sitting in your car inhaling CO from other people's tailpipes for 15 minutes is bad for you? Many of the local fast food pl…

The question mark ("?") is used in English to denote the end of a question.

I appreciate your scholarly devotion to the language and it's diverse array of punctuation. In the future you may consider reading the letters in between the punctuation, which are often used to convey the thoughts and feelings of the author.

Re: Taco Bell AI Drive-Thru

#180

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

beerandt wrote: post #21
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.

I remember the McDonalds in-store touch screen ordering systems when they were first introduced, which were also astonishingly badly designed.

Using unreliable voice as an input, then not allowing you to cancel/correct, or not supporting it in a robust fashion, is a massive fail. If there is no person there, then I guess you just have to give up and drive away.

Post reply on HN