I've got nothing against a high school kid having a job, but honestly, hasn't technology advanced to the point where we could bypass this particular profession? Let's take some human error out of the drive thru food equation and really advance society here. How many times have you been caught in the rain, your window down, while the guy on the other end of the squawk-box keeps telling you "be with you in a minute". How many times have you specified the way you want your order only to get THE EXACT FUCKING OPPOSITE of it? "Meat, cheese, and mayo only? Fuck you, you're getting NO cheese, NO mayo, and a garden on that bitch!" How nice would it be to just tap what you want to order on a LCD touchscreen, to toggle how you'd like to 'accessorize' your particular order via a simple check box instead of having to yell out your order four times to the response of a surly "WHAT?". You enter your order, swipe your debit card, and pick up your properly prepared cuisine. No pissed off looks from the guy who overheard you go "what a fucking moron" to your buddy, no screwed up order. Plus implementing such a system would save the place money in the long run by not needing the worker to fill its spot. Where am I wrong here? WHERE?
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Why haven't drive-thru order takers been replaced by touch screens?
- Thread starter tedtropy
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kumanoki said:
Unsanitary? I think we crossed that boundry when we started trusting food prepared by abunch of prank-happy high school kids and I'm sure they can find a way to make the screen durable. Slap a camera on top of it, whatever. Tons of McDonalds already have LCDs that show your order and most of the ones I've seen seem to be in good shape.
Outlaw Pro Mod
Member
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/82/kinetics.html
The liberating new-age technology in use right there inside the McDonald's--a pair of kiosks bolted to the floor near the front counter--allows customers to use a touch screen to order their Big Macs and Happy Meals exactly the way they want them. Vaughn, Chrystal, and Heather drove to this particular McDonald's--as they do regularly--just to order their food on the touch screens themselves.
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Kinetics has been successful, Melnik says, because it isn't trying to trick-up an ordinary experience with a "multimedia experience." "We focus on transactions that already exist," he says, and he wants machines that make those transactions steadily simpler. "I think that 10 years from now, serving yourself will be the default, versus now, where it's the exception," he says.
And when you raise your eyes from the airline business--where Kinetics has had a dramatic impact while selling 1,341 machines in 2003, manufacturing an average of just 5 a day--the market size, and the potential for transformation, is stunning. Kinetics is already talking to rental-car, cruise-ship, movie-theater, and hotel companies. The fast-food business alone could keep Kinetics busy for years. The top five fast-food chains by revenue--McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, and Subway--have 48,000 restaurants in the United States.
The liberating new-age technology in use right there inside the McDonald's--a pair of kiosks bolted to the floor near the front counter--allows customers to use a touch screen to order their Big Macs and Happy Meals exactly the way they want them. Vaughn, Chrystal, and Heather drove to this particular McDonald's--as they do regularly--just to order their food on the touch screens themselves.
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Kinetics has been successful, Melnik says, because it isn't trying to trick-up an ordinary experience with a "multimedia experience." "We focus on transactions that already exist," he says, and he wants machines that make those transactions steadily simpler. "I think that 10 years from now, serving yourself will be the default, versus now, where it's the exception," he says.
And when you raise your eyes from the airline business--where Kinetics has had a dramatic impact while selling 1,341 machines in 2003, manufacturing an average of just 5 a day--the market size, and the potential for transformation, is stunning. Kinetics is already talking to rental-car, cruise-ship, movie-theater, and hotel companies. The fast-food business alone could keep Kinetics busy for years. The top five fast-food chains by revenue--McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, and Subway--have 48,000 restaurants in the United States.
Jdw40223 said:
For drawing out some quick cash, I suspect most people just use an ATM. And isn't it wonderful? No bullshit chitchat with the talkative person in front of you and no getting out of your air conditioned optimal-music-playing car (if it's a drive-thru one at least).
MetatronM said:
Make it similar to the Wal-mart self check out lanes. The order doesn't go through until the machine has received payment. It could easily be designed to take cash and dispense change in addition to take credit/debit. The technology already exists, let's use it dammit!
Outlaw Pro Mod
Member
I've seen a Sonic that had the credit card slot and a keypad at each parking space.
There are a great number of reasons why this idea wouldn't be implemented. Here are a few:
It's unnecessary. The problems you mentioned are often entirely unrelated to the person taking the order. It can just as easily be the person preparing the order.
It would be physically difficult to implement. How high would this touch screen be? What if I'm in a tall truck, or a very small car? What if I pull in a bit too far from the curb and the lane is full so I can't adjust my car? It just doesn't work unless people are going to get out of their car to use it, and let's face it. They're eating at McDonald's.
There are a lot of people who don't like to use touch screens. A few summers ago, I worked at Sheetz(a gas station chain in PA with a food area which uses touch screens to place orders) and at least once a day, somebody (generally an old woman, but not always) would get somebody's attention because she didn't want to use the touch screen. It was incredibly easy to use, they just preferred not to.
These all in addition to factors such as cost. It just doesn't make any sense.
It's unnecessary. The problems you mentioned are often entirely unrelated to the person taking the order. It can just as easily be the person preparing the order.
It would be physically difficult to implement. How high would this touch screen be? What if I'm in a tall truck, or a very small car? What if I pull in a bit too far from the curb and the lane is full so I can't adjust my car? It just doesn't work unless people are going to get out of their car to use it, and let's face it. They're eating at McDonald's.
There are a lot of people who don't like to use touch screens. A few summers ago, I worked at Sheetz(a gas station chain in PA with a food area which uses touch screens to place orders) and at least once a day, somebody (generally an old woman, but not always) would get somebody's attention because she didn't want to use the touch screen. It was incredibly easy to use, they just preferred not to.
These all in addition to factors such as cost. It just doesn't make any sense.
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
It won't happen. First off, it's inconvinient. I'm sure if you've ever been to a garage or parking complex that you had to reach to pull out a stub from a machine, you know what I'm talking about. It's a pain in the ass to stick your hand out of the window and reach, especially since cars vary in height, and people vary in the positions they sit in. You'd also have to pull really close to the screen and the inexperienced/nervous folk will surely cause some damage to their cars.
teiresias said:
I'm saying it would likely be quicker to enter your order in that fashion then the occasional waiting you'll do in front of the speaker. And I can never hear the speaker with my window up. Granted, most drive thru places need to address the issue of putting damn covers over the drive-thru areas for moments like this in the first place.
Wow, got all the way to the end before someone posted exactly what I was thinking. I feel cheated out of a post.Hitokage said:
Sure, for some ppl it would be great, especially if you order vanilla combos without any changes. But do you think some middle aged woman with 4 kids in the minivan wants to figure out which faded icon on which scratched up button means "no ice in the small orange drink"?
captmcblack
Member
When I first clicked on this thread, I thought it was a DS trap/bait thread.
GAF is beginning to take its toll on me. :-\
GAF is beginning to take its toll on me. :-\
Hah, the non-touchable screen is almost just as scratched. Poor, poor kiosk DSes. Still, the kind of screens I'm talking about would obviously need be made of a more durable material than your average PDA or DS digitizer screen.
Ninja Scooter
Member
the unfortuante fact is that technology advances at the rate of the dumbest of the dumb. Morons would complain that using a simple touchscreen is too complicated. This is why we still have to deal with FULLSCREEN dvds. Idiots that insist they are somehow getting ripped off by the black bars.
Yeah, this won't happen until voice recognition advances way beyond what we have today.. and there'll still be a human on standby just in case.
Seriously, at work I process a hundred debit card transactions a day. MORE THAN HALF need help trying to slide their card properly. Half of those people slide the card and then zone out, forgetting they need to enter their PIN. The console is very clearly marked with very clear directions printed on the screen every step of the way. No way are people going to be able to process food orders with any sort of ease. Yeah, you and your buddies think this is the best thing in the world, but most people won't. Most people don't use ATMs and all that other crap, either.
And as an OCD person myself, yeah, unless someone is going out and wiping down that touch screen constantly, no way.
Seriously, at work I process a hundred debit card transactions a day. MORE THAN HALF need help trying to slide their card properly. Half of those people slide the card and then zone out, forgetting they need to enter their PIN. The console is very clearly marked with very clear directions printed on the screen every step of the way. No way are people going to be able to process food orders with any sort of ease. Yeah, you and your buddies think this is the best thing in the world, but most people won't. Most people don't use ATMs and all that other crap, either.
And as an OCD person myself, yeah, unless someone is going out and wiping down that touch screen constantly, no way.
Mr. Blonde
Member
Because fast food customers are dumber than most fast food order takers.
Fresh Prince
Banned
It worked for the voting system didn't ?
LakeEarth said:
Have the system connect to the traditional intercom system to the manager or whoever if the user's input exceeds some set period of time. I'm not saying the transistion would be flawless, no techonological evolution ever is, I'm just saying I think it's possible.
This is absolutely a feasible idea.
As for the height restrictions: are you towering over the window when you pick-up your food? Why would an LCD be any different than your distance from the pick-up window?
As for the vandalism...wouldn't that be like vandalizing an ATM machine? Simple fact is that people probably aren't going to do it on a regular basis.
As for the "pranking the system," make it so if your order exceeds a pre-determined amount by the system (say, $30) you have to come inside and order.
This idea would only be hampered by minor things.
As for the height restrictions: are you towering over the window when you pick-up your food? Why would an LCD be any different than your distance from the pick-up window?
As for the vandalism...wouldn't that be like vandalizing an ATM machine? Simple fact is that people probably aren't going to do it on a regular basis.
As for the "pranking the system," make it so if your order exceeds a pre-determined amount by the system (say, $30) you have to come inside and order.
This idea would only be hampered by minor things.
you don't save any labor (and fast food labor isn't very expensive in the first place). you have to have someone on standby to help the customer no matter what, and the places are staffed by food packaging drones (heat, serve), so it's really not a significant overhead to man a drive-through window.
someone has to be there to monitor the drive-through, both to protect company property, and to identify dangerous/particularly incompetent customers.
no doubt there are companies trying to sell systems like this to the fast food companies, but what the fast food franchisers know is that the manned drive-through system works, and is relatively cheap. the unmanned systems both have the potential to not work, and will obviously require a technology investment.
certainly, it could happen, but it's unlikely to happen before systems get smart enough to do voice-recog. i don't see it happening with touch screens.
actually, flying over the holidays, we ended up using one of the southwest touchscreen systems to check in. it didn't save any time or effort on our part or the airline's part, since someone had to be there to check the baggage anyways. the only saving grace is that the airport is a relatively managed atmosphere, and the fact is they had almost identical systems that the counter clerks were using already, so the investment was likely minimal.
someone has to be there to monitor the drive-through, both to protect company property, and to identify dangerous/particularly incompetent customers.
no doubt there are companies trying to sell systems like this to the fast food companies, but what the fast food franchisers know is that the manned drive-through system works, and is relatively cheap. the unmanned systems both have the potential to not work, and will obviously require a technology investment.
certainly, it could happen, but it's unlikely to happen before systems get smart enough to do voice-recog. i don't see it happening with touch screens.
actually, flying over the holidays, we ended up using one of the southwest touchscreen systems to check in. it didn't save any time or effort on our part or the airline's part, since someone had to be there to check the baggage anyways. the only saving grace is that the airport is a relatively managed atmosphere, and the fact is they had almost identical systems that the counter clerks were using already, so the investment was likely minimal.
They do when assholes scratch the screen with knives.miyuru said:
This thread reminds me of story a customer was telling me about a friend of his who managed a fast food place. All the money on their register is represented icons. i don't even know if there's a number pad on it. The cashier took an order and they guy had something like 25 cents for change. The cashier got confused and called his manager. "Sir, I need some change and I'm outta the one with a picture of the '25' on it."
Touch screens won't be replacing anything any time soon. As fart said, it's much easier and cheaper to simply have a person taking your order and a screen to confirm it as we have now. The problem with touch screens is that the touch with a finger isn't always registered which frustrates people who don't understand how the technology works. It also invites abuse, as my picture of the DS showed above. i've seen tons of Gameboy demo units over the years, but only a few with scratched screens. The DS i pictured had been there for maybe a little over a week.
mashoutposse
Ante Up
This would only work if you had to swipe your credit/debit card to confirm and pay for the purchase.
Papi said:
Yeah, I drive 75 miles each way to work everyday.
Gas prices fluctuate wildly between where I live and where I work (sometimes as much as $.25/gal)
I've always wanted something that would tell me the prices of every station along my route to work, so I could choose the cheapest place to buy gas. When you drive 150 miles everyday, a few cents/gallon over the course of a year can add up.
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