Wendy's Expanding Use of AI Chatbot To Take Orders At Drive-Thrus - Slashdot

Wendy's Expanding Use of AI Chatbot To Take Orders At Drive-Thrus

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• But what would be the point? You're not going to irritate a computer. The computer is just matching against the menu, so it's either going to match (and I'm guessing put it up on a screen as you order, rather than doing a read-back) or not (and reject your attempt). Sure, you could hold up the line, but you could do that by speaking Klingon to the minimum-wage person taking your order today, until they come tell you to leave.

  And I bet they'll keep recordings of orders for some period, so if you show up to complain that you didn't get your order, they can just replay the recording and see you're screwing around.

  If they can get that level of accuracy, this seems like a win. I avoid drive-through because it seems they can't reach 86% accuracy with people handling it.

  • Re:

    Venting.

    • • • Re:

          Hey! Thanks to Starbucks, I now have a tall penis!

          • Re:

            Have you considered making an onlyfans page?

            You could be "Tall, not venti, penis guy". Make bank if you go viral.

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              I wouldn't expect too big an income. I mean, if the average onlyfans user wanted to watch an old neckbeard wank, they'd just need to buy a mirror.

              • Re:

                Never know, takes all kinds. You could be the first serving an unserved market! First mover advantage!

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                  Erh... let's put it that way, every time I get a scam mail about how they filmed me wanking and now want to extort money or else they send it to everyone I know, I feel like answering that they might want to extort the money from the ones they plan to send those videos to, they're after all the ones that would be scarred for life.

                  You cannot unsee what has been seen.

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          Apparently, "venti" is Starbucksese for "cardboard bucket filled with warm milk with just a hint of coffee."

          • Re:

            That would be better than the "TikTok drinks" people ask for. My wife had to fill in when the franchised one at her hotel was short staffed after Covid so I heard about all the weird shit people would order, often with 20+ shots of this n that. Then they'd be shocked at the drink they got because the TikTok person told them how awesome it is. Often people just held up their phones to show her the mish mash of crap they they thought wanted in their cup. TikTok has even ruined the simple ritual of the mor

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              One hardly has to restrict that statement to morning coffee.

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                Truth. It's got dumb people doing all sorts of shit. My kid's HS bathrooms were getting trashed when TikTok was telling the little morons to do that (for example). I know people are dumb in general and kids are extra dumb but I have a hard time understanding why even the dumbest kids would trash their own school bathrooms because some TikTok pos told them to.

                • Re:

                  If we think Tik Tok influence is bad, imagine being blind to the kind of trashing brought on by allowing 18-year old grown-ass children to vote.

          • Re: Old jokes get fresh start

            coffee gatekeeping... how petty.

        • • Re:

            Uh yeah I knew I wasn't. I have no idea about his drive through. Maybe you can claim it through probate if he's dead. Good luck.

            • • Re:

                I'm sorry you lost your friend and didn't even get a drive through for your troubles. Maybe you can now explain what your obsession with him was about; I never understood it.

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      But what would be the point?

      Venting.

      Exactly.

      Am I the ONLY one out here who just cannot fucking stand to talk to a computer prompts?

      I get so quickly frustrated by the ever increasing phone voice prompt systems everyone is using.

      I don't like speaking my choices first...I mean, if you're in an office or there are people around...I'd rather push a fucking number key on the phone rather than have to basically let everyone know my business I'm conducting on the phone, you know?

      And they take forever to ge

      • • Re:

          Al Bundy might have something to say about this.

          Oh man...thank goodness Al Bundy and Married with Children was broadcast back in the day when it was.

          It would NEVER make it on TV today, too many woke-sters would trigger.

          Sad we can't have good, slightly racy comedy anymore....that's actually funny.

      • Re:

        Taco Bell food is delicious when it's done decently. Sadly the ones near me can't handle that.

    • Re:

      Impotently venting your frustration at no one is not really a point, it's just a dumb meme: "Old man yells at clouds".

  • Re:

    What if he orders a hamburger repeated ad infinitum?

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  Reply: Sir, this is a Wendy’s

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  Tuna, no crust.

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  Wait 'til it gets to McDonalds:

  Quarter hound dog with fleas, large flies and a medium goat...

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  This makes a lot of sense. Spend many millions of dollars across all your restaurants just so you can replace a few minimum-wage workers. To quote the great Red Foreman:
  
  Dumbass.

  • Re:

    That's an awful lot of confidence you have in an estimate based on nothing. How well do you think it will hold up to just a little scrutiny?

    Let's say Wendy's spends $100 million developing an AI that can take orders at the drive thru.

    Just in the US, Wendy's has 7166 locations. They're open 7 days a week, though hours vary by location and for holidays. We'll estimate ridiculously low and say that they're open just 10 hours a day, 360 days of the year. That means the drive thru at each store will be open

• Re:

  Hey!! I ordered 2 large fries and you gave me a hundred little ones.

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  You seem a little wound up, like you need a release. Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to go a Starbuck's for a nice, relaxing latte?;)
  
  Maybe Wendy's executives saw Idiocracy & were inspired by Carl's Jr.'s automatic vending stations?

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  Yes, I look forward to the chance to tell the AI that I want Kentucky Fried Children. Look, there are definite benefits to having been a computer programmer since those things were carved out of rocks. If you think I can't convince the AI to fry up some children, stand back and hold my beer, and put your damned kids back on their leashes if you want to keep them.

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  My mom is in her 70s; she hates the automated voice shit. It will be 10 seconds before she's screaming "HUMAN! CUSTOMER SERVICE! PERSON! OPERATOR! NO! NO! NO! PERSON!" at it like every phone call to many companies these days.

• • Re:

    and the machines work great once you know the drill,

    So the restaurant is training monkeys to do the work?

  • Re:

    In the real world, that story would probably end with that guy getting charged with shoplifting, theft or wire fraud, depending on the details and how grumpy the prosecutor was that day.

    But the best version of that story I heard is this one:
    A: "I knew a guy who always did self-checkout and entered everything as PLU 4011. Steaks, tuna, everything."
    B: "Everything as 4011? That's bananas [plufinder.com]!"

    • Re:

      When the self-checkout failed to take in coupons (they got trashed in the reader) the worker standing around to help people opened it up, took out the mangled coupons, and entered a manual code for my wife, giving more of a discount than the coupons, actually.
      Talking about that with a Meijer store director I know, he said he had to fire a couple of workers who made scammed the store by having friends buy things and then repeatedly entering codes to eliminate the cost (repeatedly, because there was a limit

  • Re:

    I see a massive flaw in your argument. Nobody except you thinks self checkout is fun.

  • Re:

    Self checkout is fun? Geez I wish I was as easily entertained.

    It's true, it's hard to be a cashier/bagger, esp. when you have to be nice to people who are basically sexually harassing you all day. But I hear the worst part of that job is the manager the manager's manager and the corporate overlords flying in and shitting on everything.