McDonald’s is removing artificial intelligence (AI) powered ordering technology from its drive-through restaurants in the US, after customers shared its comical mishaps online.
A trial of the system, which was developed by IBM and uses voice recognition software to process orders, was announced in 2019.
It has not proved entirely reliable, however, resulting in viral videos of bizarre misinterpreted orders ranging from bacon-topped ice cream to hundreds of dollars’ worth of chicken nuggets.
Would this even be necessary for automated ordering anyway? Given that every company under the sun wants you to use some app of theirs these days, including fast food companies, Im kinda surprised they dont just get rid of the speaker/microphone system, and just put a sign with a qr code in front of the drive through telling you to download and use their app to put in a drive through order
Provided they’re fine with cutting off 100% of their business coming from customers older than 50, that’d probably work great. I don’t think they’re quite there yet.
Here in Canada at least they have both at the moment. You can use the drive thru as usual or order through the app and give them a code at the drive thru or just park in a numbered spot and have them bring it out to you without ever talking to someone
I saw a video of someone just trying to pick up in the drive thru after ordering through the app. The location did not have the numbered spots to use. The AI thing wouldn’t let them continue lol. It’s like McDonald’s doesn’t even fully understand their own systems in place.