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McDonald's Is To Replace Human Workers With Voice-Based Tech In US Drive-Throughs (bbc.com) 345

Posted by BeauHD from the sign-of-the-times dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: McDonald's is to replace human servers with voice-based technology in its U.S. drive-throughs. The fast-food chain hopes the AI technology will make the ordering process more efficient. McDonald's is implementing the technology with the help of start-up Apprente, which it acquired this week. The move comes amid concern about workers whose jobs may become obsolete as a result of automation and new technologies. McDonald's plans to expand its newly formed McD Tech team by hiring more engineers and data scientists. The report notes that the company recently "invested in technology that could automatically alter individual drive-through menu panels, depending on factors such as the weather, for example automatically suggesting McFlurry ice cream on hot days or telling customers which items were already proving popular at that particular restaurant that day."
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McDonald's Is To Replace Human Workers With Voice-Based Tech In US Drive-Throughs More

McDonald's Is To Replace Human Workers With Voice-Based Tech In US Drive-Throughs

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  • Welcome to the future (Score:5, Funny)

    by gatkinso ( 15975 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:05AM (#59184992)

    Remember when technology was new and exciting? When we were all heady with the promise of it making the world a better place?

    • Re:Welcome to the future (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:11AM (#59185008)

      If the boxes can get my order right it will be making the world a better place. Where I live there are plenty of drive through drones that cannot enter the order accurately on the screen, let alone deliver a correct order at the window.

      • Re:Welcome to the future (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MitchDev ( 2526834 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:19AM (#59185036)

        Combine that will all the mush-mouths that can't speak clearly (or in recognizable english), this should be fun.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gatkinso ( 15975 )

        My main retort (why are you eating that shit) is irrelevant.

        • Why are we so judgemental on what people decide to eat?

          Sometimes I want a good high quality juicy hamburger made by an actual chief. Sometimes I just want a thin little bit dry, burger with just basic ingredients, because I am in a hurry and do not really have the time to appreciate quality food.

          Yes we see celebrity chiefs on TV who will spit out food that is less then ideal. But that is TV, and largely meant for show. Not really a good roll model for people to be so picky about food.

          Especially to insult p

      • Until all you want in the morning is a coffee and the box says, "Ok, but can I suggest a ..." and proceeds to do this for every item on the menu.

    • Re:Welcome to the future (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:24AM (#59185076) Journal

      Remember when fast food workers were fighting for massive increases in wages, expecting that no other shoe would drop?

      One just did, and it was just about as predictable as the sun rising. Make yourself more expensive and error-prone than automating the job, and eventually your position will be eliminated in favor of automation.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by RoccamOccam ( 953524 )
        I'm not convinced that it was the fast-food workers pushing for this. It seemed to be activists and politicians. I suspect that many of the politicians calculated that either the workers would get the higher wages, or they would be pushed onto welfare. Either way, those politicians would win.

        • ...the politicians calculated that either the workers would get the higher wages, or they would be pushed onto welfare. Either way, those politicians would win.

          Exactly.

      • Re:Welcome to the future (Score:5, Informative)

        by GoTeam ( 5042081 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:57AM (#59185260)
        I'm not sure this change is really going to cost people many jobs. The people taking your order are almost always doing something else at the same time. They're either taking in the money from the customers, or handing out the food at the next window. There are plenty of other jobs at risk from automation, but I don't really think this is going to lead to fewer employed workers.

        • Re:Welcome to the future (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @02:37PM (#59187426)
          A few years ago during a cross-country trip, I went through the drive-thru at a New Mexico 24-hour Jack in the Box at around 2 am. The person taking my order had a slight southern accent. When I got to the pickup window, the person didn't have an accent, and as best as I could tell he was working alone. I talked with him a bit while he waited for my food to cook, and he was indeed working alone. At nighttime in these 24-hour Jack in the Boxes, there wasn't enough business to warrant hiring an extra person to take orders. So instead they pipe the drive-thru box to a regional call center (apparently several states over) at nighttime. Hundreds of restaurants pipe their drive-thru boxes to the call center, and a handful of people working there overnight take your order and input it into the computer screen at that restaurant, so the people (or lone person) working there can prepare your order.

      • Inevitable (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @09:06AM (#59185296)
        This would have happened with or without a "massive" increase in minimum wage (which, after inflation, is really just bringing minimum wage up to what it was in the 1970s). Bank tellers weren't fighting for wage increases when ATMs were introduced. Gas station attendants weren't fighting for wage increases when self-serve was introduced. Corporations will always look for any way to cut costs and increase profits.
      • This argument has gone on forever. I am sure Cro-Magnon Man was upset when they invented the wheel. "Now only half people needed to get rock from river, how I support kids?" to John Henry and the steam shovel, machines have replaced humans for all the shitty jobs. This will not change at any pay rate. It's a nice simplistic idea though.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
        Automation was replacing employees long before they asked for higher wages.

        • The minimum wage lunacy has certainly accelerated the development and adoption of the technology though. Increased costs are always the driver.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by dbialac ( 320955 )
            What;s so loony about a job paying enough that you can support yourself? Even people working unskilled jobs deserve that.

            • Re:Welcome to the future (Score:5, Insightful)

              by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @10:54AM (#59185800)

              What;s so loony about a job paying enough that you can support yourself? Even people working unskilled jobs deserve that.

              Agreed, and props to them for wanting to work. The alternative for many is social assistance. The whiners trying to drag everyone down instead of building everyone up should realize they are better off paying an extra dime for their hamburger than paying the whole shot via their taxes.

      • Re:Welcome to the future (Score:4, Funny)

        by Hodr ( 219920 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @10:54AM (#59185804) Homepage

        Remains to be seen if it will be less error prone. I speak pretty clearly and with a neutral accent (I.E. news anchor speak) and I still have trouble with voice recognition.

        Not looking forward to yelling at the box, I SAID A BURGER WITH CHEESE, not BEES!

    • I don't see how this is a case where it isn't making the world a better place? Now I full well understand that not every person who would have otherwise been taking drive through orders at McDonald's is going to go off the medical school or become an engineer at Tesla, but I don't think you could look me in the eye and honestly say that you can think of nothing else that would be a better application of their labor.

      Our wealth as a society is limited by our ability to produce it, and while job positions l

      • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

        by forkfail ( 228161 )

        On the other hand, it's hard for anyone to be an engineer at Tesla or go to medical school when the masses are setting fire to everything in sight and shooting anyone who even looks to be either rich or educated because the oligarchs have impoverished just about everyone, and no one has anything even resembling a useful function or purpose at all in life.

      • I don't see how this is a case where it isn't making the world a better place?

        If Alexa and Google Home are anything to go by, it's just going to make the world a more frustrating place for people with British accents. I'd say I have less than 50% accuracy with those things (maybe because the ones in the US are tuned for an American accent- don't know if the ones released in Britain have any better understanding of a British accent).

        Heck, I can "wake" Alexa by saying "MyLegsAche" fast and as one word. If Alexa mistakes "MyLegsAche" as "Alexa"- dog only knows what I will get if I pl

      • as long as we make it easy for people to start new businesses

        What everybody glosses over is that the average new business launch costs as much as a midrange family sedan, and few people have that kind of money lying around.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Service jobs are lousy jobs, and ultimately as a species we should not be providing services to one another when we can be getting those services provided by machines instead.

        I disagree...they are wonderful First/Starting jobs for teens coming into the work force.

        They teach you responsibility for showing up on time, doing work, making sure you are dressed presentable int he proscribed fashion of the establishment....AND, I think this is more important than ever in todays situation of teen isolation via so

  • I almost never eat McDonald's. But this reminds me of what the drive thru experience was like a while back. They would play some automated pre-recorded voice when you first drive up. So you'd hear:

    Happy perky young girl: HI! WELCOME TO MCDONALDS! I hope you are having a WONDERFUL DAY, would you like to try our new chicken whatever sandwich???!?
    1-2 seconds later as you are in the middle of declining, dull bored guy: "wah yoo wan"

    Though it also reminds me of something from like...... 10 years ago w

    • Only those unable to think for themselves care about popularity.

      • Only those unable to think for themselves care about popularity.

        I don't agree entirely. I think that there is much to be learned from other human beings and that is what society and civilization is built on. "Popularity" is based on the learned responses of the rest of civilization. WIth crappy discount burger joints that's probably less important than other things, but the premise is the same. When it comes to ordering breakfast, that may be of less importance than say, societies favoured method for harvesting wheat; but the premise is the same, other people have g

    • Re:McVoices (Score:4, Insightful)

      by apoc.famine ( 621563 ) <apoc.famine@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Thursday September 12, 2019 @10:03AM (#59185538) Journal

      Who cares what's popular? Are people really going to eat based off of "Oh I wanted a wrap but everyone today ordered a burger I'll get that!"?

      McDonald's cares what's popular. This is advertising. And the fact that McDonalds actually exists is proof that advertising works, and that they know how to do it.

      Do you actually think this will really show what's popular? No fucking chance. This is going to show you what they want you to buy. Running low on chicken? Push the burger. New product? Push that. High margin product when business is slow? Push that one.

      Advertising in print, on the radio, on TV, in movies, with an app, and on billboards is no longer sufficient. Now they're going to advertise on the menu.

  • This will go over like a lead balloon seeing as how most brain-dead rednecks in my area talk. The drive-thru lanes will be backed up into the next county. Aforementioned hairball will try a dozen times to use the voice interface, give up, SLOWLY pull forward to the pick-up window and place the order with a live person who will no doubt be in a CHEERFUL mood in the midst of this clusterf*ck.

    • Re:Voice-based tech in the drive-thru... (Score:4)

      by twocows ( 1216842 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:32AM (#59185136)
      I suspect that (a) it'll probably figure out accents if it's trained on them and enough people speak them consistently, and (b) there will almost certainly be some kind of fallback mechanism where if the machine can't figure out what you're saying, it'll go to some call center that also won't know what you're saying but will get you processed regardless.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gatkinso ( 15975 )

      If their speech is the norm, it will be you that the AI doesn't recognize.

    • But not the clipped speaking New Yorkers, the drawling Vermonters, the horrid accents of immigrants, the stoner accents of the west coast, the abbreviated speaking of Ch'cago dwellers, heavy accents of some latinos, the.........

  • the potential for epic fails is staggering...
    prepare for epic laughs on receiving your bungled orders ;-)

    • the potential for epic fails is staggering...
      prepare for epic laughs on receiving your bungled orders ;-)

      To be fair, I get that with human operators of drive throughs already.

  • Aaw, now who will be rude to me and spit in my Coke?

    • The people that will hand you your food, which will be wrong, will still get surly when you tell them so, and have ample opportunity to adulterate your food before they hand you the corrected order.

  • Oh brother (Score:3)

    by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:20AM (#59185046)
    One person in my family likes extra pickles, another doesn't want pickles or onions, a third likes everything on the side. I'm not looking forward to using this.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      This type of scenario is exactly where my mind instantly jumped to. Orders with a significant amount of customization on the customer's end seem like they'd be a potential nightmare for the customer and all those waiting behind them.

    • And you look forward to it now? As a former picky eater, I can tell you that most minimum wage slaves fucked it up on the regular. At least with the technology I have the hope that it'll improve.

  • Soon there won't be any jobs left between this, the order kiosks in store, self-checkouts replacing employees in stores....

    Where will people get money to buy anything?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sxpert ( 139117 )

      just as in "Demolition Man", we'll be raiding the Pontiac Trans-Port that deliver Taco-Bell ;-)

  • Is voice recognition good enough for this? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Confused ( 34234 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:24AM (#59185072) Homepage

    I wonder whether today's voice recognition is already good enough to deal with heavy accents and background noises from wind, rain and car stereos. Given my limited experience with the voice menu labyrinths in phone systems, I'm not certain.

    • Less than "is the tech ready" the problem is "can McDonald's tell"?

      Their kisok ordering machine has such poor HCI that everybody just goes to the cashier. Burger King actually did a decent job - somebody there deserves a raise. I'd say the performance penalty at McD's is 3-4x slower. Somehow they thought it was good enough to deploy.

  • That should allow them to keep the slowest fast food designation this year and for many years into the future (they won last year, too) as they disambiguate misunderstood food orders.

  • Minimum wage (Score:2, Insightful)

    by DaveV1.0 ( 203135 )
    I said it before, if you demand a $15.00 per hour minimum wage across the country, then those jobs will be automated out of existence starting with fast food, which is unskilled service work.


    Here it is. How is that $15.00 per hour minimum wage for unskilled work looking now?

    Next up, burger flippers, burger builders, fry makers/packers, burrito folders, and drink dispensers.

    • Re:Minimum wage (Score:4, Insightful)

      by remoteshell ( 1299843 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:41AM (#59185188)
      I suspect that this has nothing to do with minimum wage. It has to do with applying technology because it exists.

      • Re:Minimum wage (Score:4, Interesting)

        by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:51AM (#59185230)
        At best this accelerated the issue by a year or two. I find it funny the same people who claim $15/hr will automate away everything are inevitably the same people who say "automation won't kill jobs, does it look like the buggy whip makers can't find jobs?"

        • I find it funny the same people who claim $15/hr will automate away everything are inevitably the same people who say "automation won't kill jobs, does it look like the buggy whip makers can't find jobs?"

          Are they? Dave didn't appear to say that in his post. Do you have evidence that he has said it elsewhere, or evidence that there is a trend of people making these two claims at the same time?

          It's like you said: it probably accelerated the timeline a bit. That means some people will lose jobs sooner. And

  • normally ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:29AM (#59185114) Journal

    ... with the state of consumer voice recognition tech I'd be leery of this.

    That said, it couldn't possibly be worse than the average drive through human at comprehending my order.

    • Yeah, the drive thru human operators often are kiddos with rapid fire inarticulate speech. I can't understand them a lot of the time.
  • We will now have an automated voice that can't be understood. And instead of humans screwing up your order, we will have an automated service screw up our orders due to them not being able to understand what the hell we said.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Gibberish FTW (Score:3)

    by turp182 ( 1020263 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:41AM (#59185186) Journal

    If this ever comes to pass then just speak gibberish to the system until a human intervenes. Then drive away (just do it for fun!).

    "I'd like a ham-aghtufaughy no haufins, add extra ketpah".

    I'm OK with automation for food quality, for fast food. Frankly it is needed.

    McDs' in-store order kiosks appear to be designed by Windows 10 UI rejects, they should just have boxing gloves so you can just punch the thing repeatedly (and then pickup whatever you ordered).

    For the record I just get Egg McMuffins, but only when on sale. And yeah, they do have good fries (if made properly, we need robots for this).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by OzPeter ( 195038 )

      If this ever comes to pass then just speak gibberish to the system until a human intervenes. Then drive away (just do it for fun!).

      "I'd like a ham-aghtufaughy no haufins, add extra ketpah".

      I'll have an order of hamberders and a large covfefe please.

  • Carl's Jr Kiosk -

    You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl’s Jr. Carl’s Jr ‘F*ck You, I’m Eating.’”

  • I hope it is not like these self service counters (Score:3)

    by GuB-42 ( 2483988 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @09:52AM (#59185478)

    I hate the self-service counters at McDonalds.

    If you want to pay cash, here is what happens:
    - Go to the self-service machine
    - During rush hours, you may have to wait in line
    - Prepare your order, skip all ads, extras, etc...
    - Get your ticket
    - Wait for your ticket number to appear on cash counter screen, you need to pay attention
    - Pay for your order, only then they start preparing it
    - Wait for your ticket number to appear on the pickup counter screen, you also need to pay attention
    - Pick your order...

    Even if you skip the "cash" part, this is a terrible experience. As a result, I stopped going to McDonalds, but that's not like I went often before... Maybe it helped their profits, but I am going to make sure that I don't contribute to them.

    I am not anti-automation. But I am against the kind of automation that make consumers life worse. There are plenty of cool high-tech stuff in shops. Vibrating pucks that tell your order is ready in self-service restaurants, individual tablets so that you can order from your table without struggling to get the waiter's attention, cash registers where you just need to put your stuff in a basket and identify everything instantly, cash machine where you just dump all your loose change in a basket, add a few bills and it counts everything and gives you change in the least amount of coins. These are cool, the McDonald's stuff isn't.

  • McDonalds tried similar already (Score:3)

    by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @09:53AM (#59185486)

    A few years back, McDonald's had some drive-thrus route to an Indian call center. Sometimes it would be one drive-through that had the remote order taker; sometimes both.

    Did this help much? Not really, and it was eventually discontinued, where the guy at the window had to take orders from both lanes.

    Seems like history is repeating itself. I'm hoping that the AI works better, but I have my doubts.

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