I'm hating it: Mcdonald's AI-powered drive-thru sucks | Hacker News Reader

I'm hating it: Mcdonald's AI-powered drive-thru sucks

gizmodo.com

13 pointsgrogu8826 comments

This article has basically no content. And despite the subtitle saying that it was prompted by Tiktok videos, there isn't a link to Tiktok either. Just how is this AI-powered? Is the AI trying to predict what you want to order? Is it speech to text? Something else entirely?

You have to clock the "slideshow" to get to the TikTok videos. The first, and only, one I watched was some young person yell-mumbling her corrections to the system (and phone camera) without us ever seeing if she was at all coherent in placing the order originally.

Oh wow, that UX is a mess, my brain tunes out slideshows by default at this point so I didn't even see it.

The caption for one of the videos is "Slide Title" lol

Thanks, I would not have thought of clicking on that in a million years.

> the company was seeing an accuracy percentage in the low-80s when it was really hoping for around 95% accuracy before a wider rollout

95% accuracy means it will fuck up 1 out of every 20 orders. That will be several people every lunch rush at busy locations. Do they really think that's acceptable?

I worked in fast food and 1 out of 20 would probably be a huge improvement.

The audio quality and comprehension issues that would trouble an AI absolutely plague human operators today.

On the other hand, I wouldn't punch a human being for getting the order wrong, but shitty software systems from a shitty corporation whose only goal is to cut down costs to maximize profits? Oh boy... that awakes the beast.

The only results I was able to find for human McDonald's were over the entire order, but that number was ~89% in the 2022 drive-thru survey. 95% at the ordering stage seems like an acceptable (or even optimistic) target for initial automation. If it's still too low, you can make up most of the difference with expanded customer service during the demo period while you work on increasing accuracy.

Gotta move fast!

See this is where I think this kind of conversational AI is a bit late to the game.

If I go to McDonalds I just place the order directly on the app, it remembers my previous orders, knows where I am and has my payment details saved. It can be as little as a click or two to get ordered.

I much prefer something that gives clear quantitative choices rather than something that tries to understand natural language or intention with all the potential for confusion that entails.

Huh. My experience with the McDonalds app has been very different. Every time I place an order, it never detects that I picked it up. The next time, even a month later, it still sees my order as in-progress. I can't get rid of it without deleting every line item one by one.

I think they have different apps in different countries, it used to be pretty bad but works well now here.

You know what else sucks? McDonalds.

Since the article doesn't actually provide any value... Here's an example of the AI failing to take a basic order:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MbWL3tjHHMQ

Anyone looking at the Google ads targeted at them by a BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY wondering why Google thinks they are pregnant, mysteriously trying to buy a dump truck, or mysteriously inundated with Ozempic promotions instinctively knows the limitations of AI. When the system literally knows your interests and search habits but still can't offer the compelling ads then clearly, no amount of AI research funding will bridge the valley of understanding.

McDonalds would be better off with a string tied to a lever that starts the hamburger machine

It's a miserable experience ordering from a kiosk in any case. If they can't afford to pay a worker to man the register, I'll move on.

> It's a miserable experience ordering from a kiosk

Sacrilege. The less human interaction the better, I specifically prefer restaurants that offer kiosks. No awkward or exhausting social act, and no opportunity to have my order misunderstood or misheard.

tbh, love to see it. I worked for a quick service restaurant tech company years ago. Our head strategy / marketing guy who pretended he was steve jobs hired $BIGGEST_DESIGN_FIRM_IN_WORLD to design a new system that was voice activated via AI and other $BUZZWORDS (instead of button operated). Meanwhile a company survey reported back that everyone was unhappy that they were underpaid by 10-30%, but they had the budget for the biggest name in design.

If you have ever worked in fast food, you know it extremely fast paced at rush hours. There is literally no time to say "ALEXA OPEN MIC FOR DRIVE THRU LANE" 5 times before it works, when a button press would have sufficed. It was so insanely over engineered for the task at hand. It took them years to get it to market, I left well before that.

McDonalds was a huge customer for them, and Mcdonalds spun out their tech lab soon after. The cynic in me is glad to see it all barely working for everyone. These AI drive thru things are (currently) such a stupid solution to something that is best optimized by a human in loop.

Maybe this article was generated by an AI system?

Ideal starting conditions to eat more healthy

Ugh, "trialed" instead of "tried" or "tested".

This awful word became popular, as usual, through managementspeak.

I was always taught to never use a word if a shorter, more common word existed which meant essentially the same thing. "Utilize" being the canonical example. But "trialed" is just as horrible.

Why don't they just use an app? Would be so much more convenient, you could probably replicate your last order with one button.

They have an app. If you're driving, you can't (legally) use the app. If you do it in the drive-through line, you hold the line up while you go through their clunky ordering process.

Can't you just stop the car for a minute to place the order? The whole UX is designed around an absurdity.

I am not installing an app to eat. There was no consumer friendly reason to remove the human in the first place.

ALL of McDonalds sucks 8-/

Don't eat there...

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