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Comment by duaneb | Hacker News Reader

The problem with vending machines is the intake of fresh food. Do you really want to eat a five month old thing of mcdonalds fries?

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At least for fries, this is apparently about to be rolled out across Australia by a company unrelated to McDonald's: "You put your money in and it goes from frozen to the fryer and in your cup within two minutes and 20 seconds," Mr Bendotti said.[1] It's been tried before though.[2]

I imagine it could be very successful around nightclubs where people might want to eat something greasy on their way home without really thinking about it, but I find it disheartening to see an Australian innovator trying to capitalise on something as unhealthy as the consumption of fries by the general population given the national obesity epidemic.[3]

[1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-28/chip-vending-machine/6...

[2] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-29/sach-hot-chip-vending-...

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_Australia

When I was in college, there was an A&W machine on campus that dispensed hamburgers, fries, pizza, etc.

I don't know if it's even actually the case but I assume it stored the food frozen then microwaved it when you ordered it.

It wasn't the best food in the world, but it was quite edible (although it kept burning the pizza.)

Vending machine with freezer, automated deep fryer, flattop, etc. Basically a robotic McD's in a box.

I would love to work on that problem. Maybe I should apply to YC with it...

McDonald's has a technology group that already works on problems like these. Look for patents under McD's holding company "Restraurant Technology, Inc."

https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts&gws_rd=ssl#tbm=pts&q=inassig...

(My favorite? US Design Patent #D277,235: The McRib.)

McDonald's likes to come up with these solutions and then license the patents to the OEMs that actually produce the equipment. I've worked for some of these OEMs in the past and McDs drives new ideas downward just as often as the OEMs drive new things upward. But it doesn't mean those ideas are always economically or even technically feasible when deployed to 30,000 stores...some in very remote locations.

If McDonald's had a way to start moving more into fully robotic prep-and-assembly (more than they already are), then you would see it in the stores. It's still too expensive and too fragile. Humans are more versatile and cheaper.

I think you should! This is actually quite common (although not by McDonalds) where I live, in Amsterdam:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Distributeurs-febo.jp...

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