/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25493869/2153924477.jpg)
Maybe I’m just really good with talking to robots, but the AI drivethru voice at my local McDonald’s is way, way, way more accurate than basically all of the employees they used to have running it before. A few times it’s been down for whatever reason and an actual human takes my order and I remember how shit they are at their jobs when they get my order wrong yet again, or can’t hear me, or talk with gum in their mouths or whatever.
Ohh damn are they going back to filthy organics?
A lot of people seem to be misinterpreting the headline given the content of the article:
It told Restaurant Business it was testing whether the voice ordering chatbot could speed up service and that the test left it confident “that a voice-ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.”
This is just saying that they are ending their 2021 partnership with IBM for AI drive thru.
Not that they are abandoning AI for drive thru.
Drive through seems like a great proving ground. Record every drive through customer / cashier interaction. Match each recording up with the transaction entered into the register. Train a model by having the model “listen” to the recording to predict what the order should look like, then match it to the items on the transaction receipt.
Then, phase 1 of implementation is to use the model in real time by listening to the live conversation at the drive through, predicting what it thinks the order should be, then prompting the cashier to double-check the order to see if the human made a mistake entering the order if the prediction doesn’t match.
Phase 2 is human-supervised, where the order taking system interacts directly with the customer to take the order, the human checks the result, and is able to step in / take over if there’s a mistake or a special case the order system can’t handle.
Phase 3 is “fuck your entry level employment” and no human is monitoring the system.
All 3 phases seem completely doable to me at this point, depending on how much backlash MCD is willing to deal with.
I suspect that even if they were abandoning future plans for AI drive through ordering, they wouldn’t say they were. Saying you’re not doing anything with AI might actually hurt a companies share price right now.
Translation: the AI was worse at it than even Drunk Steve after a 3-day bender.
Hey, leave Drunk Steve out of this. He did nothing wrong.
Ai, pretty good. Speach recognition software. Still trash
speaking as someone who worked a drive thru window during morning rush: LET THE FUCKING AI WORK THE DRIVE THRU
AI so bad it can’t get your burger order right.
No wonder people are sinking hundreds of billions into it. As opposed to, say, education.
I stopped going to BK because they ALWAYS messed up my order. I finally had it and never went back. I bet the ai is more competent than my local BK. What makes this story more sad is I rarely get fast food, mainly as a treat, and fucking BK always messed it up.
Eh…AI messes my order. Some dumbass teenager messes up my order. Whats the difference?
I wouldn’t call it the MAIN reason I no longer go get fast food…but maybe like the lower end of the top 10 reasons I gave up fast food years ago.
At least the dumbass teenager isn’t putting glue on a pizza. Although in my area they will use the pepperoni placement to make a swastica on your pizza…or put their bare feet into the lettice of the burger king lettice bins. I mean sure, THOSE guys got fired, but how many other stories DON’T make the news???
Eh…AI messes my order. Some dumbass teenager messes up my order. Whats the difference?
I mean, I can think of a couple.
It’s McDonald’s, no amount of humans or technology will get your order right.
Why would we need education if there aren’t going to be any jobs to do?
It’s one of those mysteries. Maybe we should ask an educated person.
They’ve redirected your call to an untrained AI that just keeps saying “Hello??? Hello??? Hello???”
Because thats all it ever hears before people hang up on it. So thats sll the language they know.
It wasn’t working.
Why not just have a touchscreen menu then? You already need large screens so people can confirm the AI recorded their order correctly and this will skip the need of a person manning the drive through menu. You could even include options to “hold the pickle”, etc.
Or like a mobile app that works reliably and doesn’t completely suck?
Or a mobile app that doesn’t force people to waive their rights to sue on October 23rd, 2023
This would also be nice. Usually, I only order fast food if I can place a call first (Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Pizza, etc). Grubhub fees are ridiculous or and apps are always taking your data.
I’ve often wondered this, they have them inside all the stores here but not on the drive throughs
Maybe it’s an issue of weatherproofing, or maybe vandalism?
Maybe, but they already have screens there so this wouldn’t change much. I guess reaching a screen from your car could be a bit awkward though.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
If your local McDonald’s has been getting your order confidently wrong with an AI chatbot at the drive-thru, I have good news for you: The company is ending the program for now.
The company told franchisees that it’s winding down an AI drive-thru ordering partnership with IBM “no later than July 26th, 2024,” according to trade publication Restaurant Business.
Bloomberg reported that the deal was partly for a chatbot named “Ask Pickles” that employees could use for guidance on things like cleaning ice cream machines.
Even so, Google partnered with Wendy’s, which started testing drive-thru AI based on its tech last year and has since expanded that trial.
And Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, and others use an AI drive-through chatbot that an SEC filing revealed was underpinned by remote human workers in the Philippines most of the time.
The company also offers things like mobile ordering and in-store kiosks and has tested drone deliveries, kitchen robots, and weird AI hiring tools.
The original article contains 291 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 45%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
deleted by creator
I feel like the Ai hype bubble is about to pop. It’s semi decent at some things but that’s about it.
Whenever I need a new profile picture for my TTRPG character, absolutely. Anything else? No thanks.
Using AI seems extremely excessive compared to a regular interface or human.
It’s excessive now, but once it works, I’d much rather subscribe to drivethru AI than pay an acceptable living wage to some human. /s
I think those kiosks with the big touch screen and the mobile apps work pretty well already, I always rather use them and see a picture what I can order instead of talking to the person.
tbh I’d rather not see the picture when it comes to mcdonald’s, as it can only lead to a disappointment
To be fair, you’ll be disappointed either way. At least with the menu, they can feel like they’re selling decent food (their pictures do look decent) and you can make sure your order is correct.
I don’t see how one can make sure their order is correct with a fake picture, but whatever floats your boat
Well, if you push the same fake picture you did last time, you should get a similar, disappointing result. If you get a different, disappointing result, you know your order is wrong.
I’ve stopped waiting in drive thrus because it’s faster and more convenient to order it ahead of time and pick it up inside.
I used the Mcdonalds app a few times and the drivethru was always faster, lmao.
They require location services and don’t start cooking until you’re inside their geofence, but IME they seem to still prioritize drivethru customers.
I don’t eat at McDonald’s, so I haven’t had that experience. But I love being able to order Sheetz food for the next morning when I’m going on a trip, or schedule it for when I’m going to need a pit stop and just have it ready. Wendy’s is also pretty good about this, too.
I have disabled location settings because it tracks the drive from my home. I enable it to use any deals and close the app after ordering and taking a photo of the order number. They start cooking after you let them know the code in the drive-thru. No need to open the app. They do prioritize drive-thru’s because their performance is tracked based off that. That’s why they sometimes ask you to pull ahead from the window. I never worked there, I just noticed the timing screen in the kitchen when I used to do DoorDash, which tracked when a car got in and out of the line. They used to act as though I was invisible and only served drive-thru.
I can’t use the mobile app because my kid wants a cheeseburger happy meal and it’s impossible to order on the app. Try it! It won’t let you at all.
Technically, cheeseburger happy meals are no longer on the menu because they’ve decided it has too many calories. If you go there and ask for one, of course, they will add a slice of cheese to a hamburger happy meal. But using the app to order one is a bridge too far, I guess.
When it comes down to it, though, we shouldn’t eat that crap anyway.
I checked, just for you. You can pick the hamburger happy meal and add cheese.
Where are you located? I am in the US. I downloaded and logged into the App again (just in case something changed) and I see no option to add cheese to a hamburger happy meal. I can pick a hamburger meal and “customize”, and add everything else – even a second hamburger patty if I wanted – but no cheese.
Maybe it’s just with my local McD?
Massachusetts. Adding cheese is there for the two McD’s near me.
https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/c7323c38-f5d0-47e0-b96d-9264755fb952.png
https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/81a3ab83-85cd-4f5f-8332-3c997c43a5a2.png
Weird. I don’t see that “American Cheese” line at all. Maybe it’s a NY thing.
Checking in from Iowa and I have the option here too when I hit the customize button. I do have to scroll down a bit?
You might try uninstalling and reinstalling. If on android, clear your settings before the uninstall. The mcdee app does tend to be kind of unpredictable.
If that doesn’t work, send an email to them. I actually did email on some problem I had and they responded pretty quick with a temp workaround and fixed it later.
I see cheese in Buffalo and Rochester, but not in Albany. It’s more localized than NY.
Interesting. I will have to do some more experiments later to see where they will let me order that. Thanks for confirming it’s not just me, though. I wa suspicious that there was some sort of cheesy conspiracy going on.
I fucking hate them.
They’re designed for people who are about 5’0". They take so much longer than speaking the order to a person, especially if you have any customizations to add/remove.
0/10, avoid at all costs.
Can I get a McCrapwich? That’s it, no drink. <tap>. It’s like 10 seconds.
Oh, did you want to remove the tomato?
That’ll be an extra 3 minutes.
What parent item are the salads under again?
They blow.
For me it’s the exact opposite, most of them have the possibility to change the language to English, even though it’s only partially translated I still can see the pictures of what I’m trying to order. If I need to look at the Korean menu and then speak Korean to the person to order, then I would just go away, especially if they don’t have pictures on the menu.
For me it’s use 10/10 (even the crappy ones)
I can understand the language barrier win there.
They’re designed for people of average (male) height, like everything else from default seatbelt position to doorways. Sounds like yet another tall person complaint to add to the pile.
In any case, I find them comfortable (probably because I’m average height lmao) and I like to take my time ordering to combine the best deals possible without having a cashier staring waiting on me so they can go take care of all the other things that McDs overworks their employees with.
IME (I’ve worked FF before) you “Fuck these machines” people generally trend towards annoying karen-type and take FOREVER ordering.
Doorways? Lol. Think about the alternative, if they were designed for the average height for females. Most men would need to duck or crawl under doorways.
Ok yea doorways was probably a bad example since those actually get an additional allowance for furniture and crap
And to clarify, I don’t actually agree with the method of using the male average for everything (Ever wonder why they set the Office thermostat to 72? That’s right male average of comfort lol), but it’s what the world around us is built around.
You just sound like you’re on a witch-hunt and hate men lol.
I like customizations on the touchscreen. I’ve had several experiences where I tell the cashier what I want including customizations only to get my order and realize that the order wasn’t entered in properly. The touchscreen ensures that the order is at least entered properly.
Those kiosks aren’t in the drive-throughs.
I use them but they are still made to be annoying
- Start
- No I don’t use a mobile app
- Takeaway
- Burgers
- Big Mac menu
- Fries
- Cola
- Add to basket
- No I don’t want extra
- Pay
- No I don’t want extra
- Pay here
- Pay with credit card
- Finally pay
- Printer is not working
- Oh what was my number?
I prefer just saying “can I get a medium #2 combo, please.” And being done with it.
That may be fine for regular customers, but what about the rest of us who don’t have the menu memorized?
The menu is 6 foot across, above the counter where you order, glowing, with pictures of each item and number next to it. Even someone who couldn’t read could order food using the normal system.
I’ve literally ordered by signing a number with my fingers to indicate the item I wanted in a country where I don’t speak the language at a fast food franchise I’d never been to before.
The menu is 6 foot across, above the counter where you order, glowing, with pictures of each item and number next to it
And changing pages while you’re trying to parse the cacophony of choices and options.
Most menus are fixed paper with back lighting not changing displays, most of the places that have the new displays added them at the same time as the touch screen stations.
Then there’s more ‘uhm’ and ‘aah’ involved.
Fuck all, I hate those things. Just pay a teenager to take my order with a judgemental expression. I hate self checkouts, I hate self order kiosks, no I do not want to use a phone app to place my order, I just want a double cheeseburger with no pickles GODAMMIT
Hunh. And here I thought they couldn’t get any worse than when they had call centers taking orders from the drive through…
I actually went to a mcdonalds that did this. It was overall way more slow and annoying. I would be willing to make that concession if knew that it was something to worked towards a better future for humans, but all its means is that someone is getting fired under capitalism. Also it failed to understand if I wanted sauce and just referred me to someone actually working.
I’ve heard a few instances in which “AI” is just a bunch people responding to a voice to text feed in the Philippines.
So much of this isn’t really technology. It’s just a new kind of service sector outsourcing.
This reminds me of a post I saw once were someone said AI stood for Actually Indian
Amazons Mechanical turk in a nutshell
I think McDs always planned to roll out remote customer service to really maximize capitalism. And wrapping it under AI because that’s a trendy buzzword!
I don’t think that replacing order taking positions is stealing anyone’s job, in fast food at least. I worked at a fast food joint one time. We were always shorthanded and we always had to do order taking while doing a bunch of other things. It was such bullshit. From an overworked employee perspective, if there was any way to get out of doing drive through orders while doing all my other tasks, I would be happy to use it.
They will still be short staffed and overworked. The company isn’t outsourcing the drive through out of the kindness of their hearts in order to lighten the workload on the employees.
