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Comment by kevmo314 | Hacker News Reader

Using voice recognition to automate drive-thrus...

Seems like they could've added QR code + online ordering to each of their parking spots instead but I guess AI is cool too.

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I've used touchscreen kiosks at Taco Bell and McDonald's and Subway. TBH, none of them are great experiences for simple orders.

Order ahead is available from the app, but I wouldn't be surprised if regular audio is actually faster in most cases.

Audio is probably faster per person. However, it is serial in nature. I walk up to 4 kiosks and want a combo #3 with a coke, and I get to skip the three families, each trying to talk their 4 year old into choosing fruit and milk over fries and a coke.

Also, order verification is nice with a kiosk (for now). If I want something without pickles, I can see that right in front of me. It seems like every drive-thru and PoS that has a display which can provide order feedback has switched to displaying ads to buy some other product. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before the kiosks start to have modals which have to be cleared to continue with the order: Have you tried the hot apple pie? How are you enjoying the kiosk experience? Really, the people doing these things can never resist.

They could offer a phone number to call in to place your order so orders could be placed in parallel

Audio is much faster. McDs is way behind with mobile order and pickup. I've done curbside orders where I sat in the slot and watched the entire DT empty out before someone came out with my food.

If you want to see a group that has their technical shit together, check out Chik-Fil-A.

McDonalds does offer mobile ordering, but their own-branded apps are segmented by country. If my App Store is set to the US and I order in Canada (or vice versa) then I have to fall back to more traditional ordering methods like going to a kiosk/cashier/drive thru.

Honestly this (cross-country ordering and payment) is one of the things Uber Eats does really well, but you definitely pay a price premium for it over, say, the Starbucks or McDonalds apps.

People who own cars aren't guaranteed to own smartphones, and McDonald's wants their business too.

In addition, the McDonald's drive-thru is iconic, and the stickiness of that part of the brand means it won't go away soon.

And the fact remains, and McDonalds knows this, that their food doesn't survive 10 minutes in the bag, much less 30 with a delivery driver.

They already have it so that you can order by phone. A touchpad/kiosk type thing would make perfect sense too except maybe it required more hardware than they wanted to spend money on?

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