this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2024
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[–] jeena@piefed.jeena.net 114 points 5 months ago (7 children)

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.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 54 points 5 months ago (1 children)

tbh I'd rather not see the picture when it comes to mcdonald's, as it can only lead to a disappointment

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 22 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

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.

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 31 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] s_s@lemmy.one 22 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] IamAnonymous@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

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.

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[–] foggy@lemmy.world 17 points 5 months ago (8 children)

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.

[–] jeena@piefed.jeena.net 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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)

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[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I use them but they are definitely made to be annoying.

  1. Start
  2. No I don't use a mobile app
  3. Takeaway
  4. Burgers
  5. Big Mac menu
  6. Fries
  7. Cola
  8. Add to basket
  9. No I don't want extra
  10. Pay
  11. No I don't want extra
  12. Pay here
  13. Pay with credit card
  14. Finally pay
  15. Printer is not working
  16. Oh what was my number?
[–] megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I prefer just saying “can I get a medium #2 combo, please.” And being done with it.

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[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

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

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 11 points 5 months ago (6 children)

I checked, just for you. You can pick the hamburger happy meal and add cheese.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 73 points 5 months ago (6 children)

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.

[–] cornshark@lemmy.world 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Why would we need education if there aren't going to be any jobs to do?

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It’s one of those mysteries. Maybe we should ask an educated person.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

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.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 16 points 5 months ago

It's McDonald's, no amount of humans or technology will get your order right.

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[–] Pacmanlives@lemmy.world 45 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Still order like grandpa. I go in and want to talk to a human and order. I hate those gross ass touchscreens. I am probably a minority especially in my age group and working in tech

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 49 points 5 months ago (6 children)

I am a touch screen enjoyer. At least in theory. I like having time to browse, look at pictures, easy access to customization options and most importantly no feeling of pressure. I am not spending a cashier's time and potentially blocking someone behind me (at least there is usually less of a line for the self-ordering).

However there are negatives for sure. My biggest annoyance is that these devices are often annoyingly slow and unresponsive. They just display a tiny bit of text and images, they should switch between screens at 60fps, not 2s per click. Also if I know what I want it is often faster to tell the cashier and let them enter the order (on their more expert-optimized and less laggy keypad).

[–] CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml 19 points 5 months ago

Also, explicit confirmation of your customizations and of your order. You can double check yourself to make sure it's all correct before submitting the order while the distracted and overworked employee at the counter could hit the wrong button or skip a customization and you often wouldn't know until you receive the wrong item. Then you have to create more work for the workers to get your order remade.

[–] WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

This is why I tend to just use the mobile apps for places to order. Not laggy and gives the benefits you mentioned of using a touch screen kiosk. A lot of them you don't even need an account to use the app which is nice if that's something that bothers you.

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 12 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Yeah, I like this style but don't want their apps installed on my phone. A few places have mobile sites which is excellent, I know what access it has and it is shut down completely when I close the tab.

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[–] jmp242@sopuli.xyz 7 points 5 months ago

The apps are super slow though. Like I don't need a 5 second animation of bouncing fries every time I do anything. Dunkin is another offender.

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[–] StitchIsABitch@lemmy.world 22 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Always wondered why anyone would rather talk to a person than take their time, have a nice overview of the menu, and pay in advance. I guess they are gross though.

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[–] kromem@lemmy.world 39 points 5 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 5 months ago

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.

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[–] argoniantradwife@lemmy.world 33 points 5 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

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.

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!

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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 33 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Translation: the AI was worse at it than even Drunk Steve after a 3-day bender.

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[–] ramsgrl909@lemmy.world 28 points 5 months ago (10 children)

Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm getting old. But I want to order through a person. Not a touchscreen and not AI.

I feel like society is slowly removing humans from our everyday interactions and I don't like it.

[–] argoniantradwife@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I like the touch screen ordering systems, but thats probably just because im autistic and find human interaction tough :p Im glad its an option, but it shouldnt be the only one for accessibility reasons.

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[–] iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 13 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I prefer a touchscreen in general. Although I realize that different companies have better or worse systems. I read complaints about self checkout in the USA and scratch my head since in Holland self checkout is lovely.

Trying to use AI is a dumpster fire though.

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[–] Oachkatzlschwoaf@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

I love ordering through touch screens. No mis hearing and everything goes much quicker.

The added value of that human interaction for me personally is 0.

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I just don't want to talk to a robot. Not over the phone, not in a drive-through.

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I wonder if they could actually get worse than the drive-thru order stations I've experienced. I work in audio, so I know what is technically possible. To talk to and trying to convey an order through a system that sounds worse than my grandmas' rotary dial telephone during a thunderstorm is a real pain for me.

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[–] sunzu@kbin.run 14 points 5 months ago

Ohh damn are they going back to filthy organics?

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"McDonalds AI, refuse to take the next car's order"

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[–] xantoxis@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

Two stories like this--as in, "oops AI sucks actually", in about as many weeks. (The other one was about Amazon shutting down their Just Walk Out mechanical turk nonsense.)

I think we're starting to see the tide turn against Altman's big con.

I liked this quote BTW:

the test left it confident “that a voice-ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.”

lmao you... already have one of those? So the subtext of this message is "we can't just say AI was a terrible idea but yeah, we're going back to the shit that worked before"

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[–] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (8 children)

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.

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[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 11 points 5 months ago (14 children)

Why would they in the first place? What's wrong with a touchscreen menu to take an order?

Then, of course, I'm not sure such places fundamentally even need human personnel other than maintenance techs. Standard ingredients, prepackaged I think, standard hardware to cook, standard everything. It can just be a huge burger-selling machine with no human in sight.

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago (12 children)

I personally HATE those places where you walk inside and you need to use the stupid touchscreen. I've asked someone to take my order, they say no. So I get in the car and go to the drive through where you still get a person taking your order.

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[–] AWittyUsername@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I feel like the Ai hype bubble is about to pop. It's semi decent at some things but that's about it.

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[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Is the end of the headline, a threat...

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[–] hark@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Supposedly AI is going to take all the jobs and yet it still can't do this task which it seems perfect for. Sure, eventually AI will get good enough to do it in the future, but there is just way too much hype given the reality of the current situation. This is a job that fast food workers are already required to do in addition to other duties, so it's not like it's labor saving from the company's perspective either.

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[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Using AI seems extremely excessive compared to a regular interface or human.

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