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Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

I am not sure voice based AI is up to the task. Even with a headset/mic Google Assistant and Siri have problems with more complicated commands.

I am not sure how well the tech will hold up to the effects of wind, car engine sounds, screaming kids, customizations (hold the pickles), accents, etc.

What I think will happen is that they will roll out this technology, and then be faced with a bunch of irritated customers re-doing their order at the payment window because the voice AI completely screwed up their order.

I think mobile ordering through an app is a much more viable option.

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I'm not sure when the last time you tried the assistant was, but Google's speech-to-text is getting ridiculously good. I think most of the time, it would be able to get even complicated orders correct.

Anyways, I'm sure that for the 10% where it doesn't work, they can install an interactive touchscreen for correcting orders (or have an app). And for the 90% of the rest, they save a ton of money by having computers do the task instead of humans.

Have you seen people order? I would shoot half the customers if I worked a fast food counter much less the drive through.

My first job was at Burger King. Working the drive thru was seen by most as a punishment. During the day it wasn't that bad but at night people were absolutely ridiculous in their behavior and expectations. It didn't help that many were drunk or under the influence of other intoxicants. Not sure how well automated systems would be able to deal with such situations. Maybe the customers simply couldn't order food unless they conformed to the system. Or maybe they'd just drive off, with the business losing a sale.

With the near ubiquity of internet connected phones and tablets, making a greater push for people parking outside the restaurant, ordering on their phone and having it delivered to their car curbside seems like the better medium to long term play. Get rid of the drive thru altogether. Likely would make the entire place safer for pedestrians too.

Sounds like a design funnel using AI system that doesn't respond to the shenanigans would take the reward away from them, and they'd just "behave" and order.

Sounds great for the employees, but where's the sell for the franchisee/HQ?

Eh, competitors who are doing it will put you out of business if you're not innovating towards same efficiencies. :)

Good point. Actually, why do they need a restaurant at all? Why not just a kitchen and a window that delivery people or robots go to get the food when its ready.

Although I think drone delivery could be more efficient. Even though you are flying, you are moving maybe 50 or 100 pounds instead of 2000 or 3000.

Coffee delivery by drone was in the trial stage in Australia beginning of this year: https://www.ubergizmo.com/2019/01/google-coffee-delivery-dro...

Reminded me of this:

https://theuserisdrunk.com/

Drive-thrus aren't the only things people use while they're drunk

There are probably people using your website or app while drunk. How does your user experience handle this?

I am very concise with my orders, I know what I want when I pull up. Half the time they still get it wrong. I much prefer touch screens and smart phone apps for ordering.

You're thinking short-term. What are the odds the food service industry will employ humans to take mass-market food orders in 10 years?

Restaurant servers will still exist at the higher-end, much like chauffeurs do today. But most people won't be driving their cars and a human won't be taking burger orders or grilling the patty.

My honest opinion is that after investing in AI and seeing it come up short time and again, over the next 10 years, businesses are going to run from anything that calls itself AI.

I think we are going to have another “AI” winter.

I think AlphaGo put paid to that notion. It's real this time. It's all over but the scaling.

I'm picturing someone saying the same thing about Deep Blue a couple of decades ago.

Are we so sure it's that different this time around? Sure, current AI are better, but are they better enough?

If you step back and look at the tech we use everyday similar to expert systems + graph search like deep blue, it might seem like magic. Web search, online maps, digital advertising, all huge right now.

Yes. Chess and Go are that different.

What is different this time is cloud computing / always connected devices. This enables easy collection and access to enormous amounts of training (and continuous retraining) data needed, as well as offloading processing to a single, central model that can be optimized for fat hardware for runtime.

On screen confirmations should cut down on those issues.

also throw in externalities like nearby construction, speech disorders, music with lyrics or radio shows, 2nd or 3rd language speakers using english improperly, or just plain stupid and bizarre behavior. not to mention it gives your competitors an easy marketing opportunity, 'real human servers' could become the new fresh not frozen. mobile ordering would add a lot of convenience, but it's also very frustrating to see so many services become tied to the assumption that you have a phone & more or less inaccessible without one.

Siri and Google Assistant are much more (intentionally?) gimped than the state of the art. But I don't have any faith in McDonald's version either.

Google Assistant gimped? How so?

You make it sound like google could just flip a switch and the assistant would magically work better. If it were that simple, why would they intentionally limit the platform?

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