3 ms·

Why talk at all? I can put my order into the Sonic app and pull up, press the button, and have my burger and tots brought out. A better, frictionless experience

• cbhl 6y ago
  Apps work great if you are a repeat customer; I think Starbucks is best-in-class for this because it combines payments, rewards, and "predictive" ("bonus stars", and an obviously-history-driven one-tap reordering). The legacy drive-thru interface with a two-way speaker is great for my parents' generation, for whom apps can be difficult to use (small print, fine motor control). As for me, a 90s kid, drive thrus give me nostalgia for being in the back seat as a child, reading off a large analog menu board with fine print. In some sense you could consider this a "compatibility layer" or the "adapter pattern". In-person ordering (through the drive thru or at a register in-store) also has to handle weird edge cases that the apps don't handle, like a tourist visiting from another country. (McDonald's and Starbucks both have per-country apps, and if you leave the US with the US apps, you can't place mobile orders in other countries or even see local store locations. Contrast this with Uber, who will happily let you order an Uber in Tokyo or Zurich with an app downloaded in SF, but has an app size to match.)