4 ms·

McDonald’s New Big Mac ATM Requires Zero Human Interaction

14 points by ghosh 10y ago

joezydeco 10y ago
Bad headline. Right there in the article: “The burgers are cooked on-site at [a nearby] McDonald’s and then immediately loaded into the heated machine, which is refilled on an ongoing basis to ensure fresh quality,” It's just spitting out preboxed items like any other vending machine. Humans are still involved.
- brandon272 10y ago
  That's what I was wondering when I first saw this; that there was no way this machine was doing any cooking. And that it would need to be routinely refilled with food and beverage ingredients. There would also need to be some way to deal with mistakes being made. (i.e. What happens if you make a mistake while ordering, or you pay for your order and then it spits out half a burger or a watery soft drink?) And that's to say nothing of ongoing servicing, maintenance and development.
- blacksmith_tb 10y ago
  I assume by "human interaction" they meant that customers don't hand money to a human, not that no humans were involved at any stage in the process.
  - joezydeco 10y ago
    Yet we don't see daily headlines declaring "Coca-Cola machine sells cans of soda to humans without interaction". I'll stand by the premise that this is clickbait, centered around a marketing event from McDonald's, loosely gathered on paranoia about replacing fast-food workers with robots.
- ianai 10y ago
  The end customer doesn't actually interact with anybody directly.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
quineoa 10y ago
For the "humans are still involved" comments, maybe the article is referring to the fact that these machines allow you to purchase a big mac without having to talk to a human. In this situation, the experience of a fast-food purchase is being removed of the small talk, the smiles, the "have a nice day!". And now there are people behind a curtain that you don't see or interact with.
- brandon272 10y ago
  > In this situation, the experience of a fast-food purchase is being removed of the small talk, the smiles, the "have a nice day!". I think I'm visiting different fast food restaurants. My experience typically involves a challenging conversation through a low quality speaker system and then paying for the order with someone who can barely stand to look at me, much less tell me to have a nice day!
  - LanceH 10y ago
    I'm always annoyed by the screen they have at the drive-thru that was supposed to confirm your order, but now only shows ads.
    - r00fus 10y ago
      Not that case for a local (SV) Taco Bell, at least. Good ol' list of items/prices and voice works well I guess, unless you love gimmicks.
  - hrodriguez 10y ago
    > paying for the order with someone who can barely stand to look at me, much less tell me to have a nice day! My experience too in lots of places where there's "customer service" involved. I always blame management when I come across employees that obviously can't handle working with the public. A looong time ago, I use to work retail and there was always a couple of people who would have a single bad experience with a customer and then spend the rest of the week taking it out on everyone else. They essentially created the hostility they faced everyday. Management always looked the other way as long as they had the positions filled.
sctb 10y ago
Some recent discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13494426 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13494426 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13514997 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13514997.

14 points by ghosh 10y ago

Bad headline. Right there in the article: “The burgers are cooked on-site at [a nearby] McDonald’s and then immediately loaded into the heated machine, which is refilled on an ongoing basis to ensure fresh quality,” It's just spitting out preboxed items like any other vending machine. Humans are still involved.

brandon272 10y ago
That's what I was wondering when I first saw this; that there was no way this machine was doing any cooking. And that it would need to be routinely refilled with food and beverage ingredients. There would also need to be some way to deal with mistakes being made. (i.e. What happens if you make a mistake while ordering, or you pay for your order and then it spits out half a burger or a watery soft drink?) And that's to say nothing of ongoing servicing, maintenance and development.
blacksmith_tb 10y ago
I assume by "human interaction" they meant that customers don't hand money to a human, not that no humans were involved at any stage in the process.
- joezydeco 10y ago
  Yet we don't see daily headlines declaring "Coca-Cola machine sells cans of soda to humans without interaction". I'll stand by the premise that this is clickbait, centered around a marketing event from McDonald's, loosely gathered on paranoia about replacing fast-food workers with robots.
ianai 10y ago
The end customer doesn't actually interact with anybody directly.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

quineoa 10y ago

For the "humans are still involved" comments, maybe the article is referring to the fact that these machines allow you to purchase a big mac without having to talk to a human. In this situation, the experience of a fast-food purchase is being removed of the small talk, the smiles, the "have a nice day!". And now there are people behind a curtain that you don't see or interact with.

brandon272 10y ago
> In this situation, the experience of a fast-food purchase is being removed of the small talk, the smiles, the "have a nice day!". I think I'm visiting different fast food restaurants. My experience typically involves a challenging conversation through a low quality speaker system and then paying for the order with someone who can barely stand to look at me, much less tell me to have a nice day!
- LanceH 10y ago
  I'm always annoyed by the screen they have at the drive-thru that was supposed to confirm your order, but now only shows ads.
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Not that case for a local (SV) Taco Bell, at least. Good ol' list of items/prices and voice works well I guess, unless you love gimmicks.
- hrodriguez 10y ago
  > paying for the order with someone who can barely stand to look at me, much less tell me to have a nice day! My experience too in lots of places where there's "customer service" involved. I always blame management when I come across employees that obviously can't handle working with the public. A looong time ago, I use to work retail and there was always a couple of people who would have a single bad experience with a customer and then spend the rest of the week taking it out on everyone else. They essentially created the hostility they faced everyday. Management always looked the other way as long as they had the positions filled.

sctb 10y ago

Some recent discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13494426 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13494426 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13514997 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13514997.