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Comment by dnemmers | Hacker News Reader

Have you not been to a drive through lately? Plenty of ‘computer’ help with the ordering experience.

I’m sure most fast food places would love to operate sans employees.

The strangest thing is happening at my drive through, the voice sounds to be of an older woman and when I get to the window, there aren't any woman working in the restaurant.

There are many non native worker in this restaurant with a distinctive accent but this "old woman" has a local accent.

It's not an ai voice so my guess is that she's somewhere else (at home?) and only handling the drive trough requests.

So the obvious conclusion is --- an old woman operating from a remote location is more effective than AI.

I’m sure most fast food places would love to operate sans employees.

You're validating my point.

I went through a drive through today. No AI in sight.

If AI is ready, willing and capable of doing the job, why isn't it?

It's not for lack of desire or effort.

https://wonderfulengineering.com/taco-bell-is-rethinking-its...

https://t2conline.com/ai-at-the-drive-through-would-you-like...

Companies are trying. The Wendy's by me has an "AI" ordering process in the drive through. Consequently, I don't go to Wendy's any more because I hate talking to the clanker. But I imagine a lot of people just do it.

Companies are trying.

The rest of your comment suggests tney have yet to fully succeed.

McDonalds tried for 3 years. They found that roughly one in five orders required human intervention. AI created bigger problems than it solved --- like driving away customers.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mcdonalds-spent-3-years-ai-dr...

Now at first brush, while I don't think that AI could replace fast food workers, McDonald's obviously also went Hard Mode when they partnered with IBM to provide the AI.

Taco Bell had similar results.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/after-2-mill...

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