I will say, there is a Wendy’s near me that is piloting an AI drive-thru experience, and I prefer it 10-to-1 to the human version. It had a clear voice, it didn’t disappear randomly, it understood what I meant the first time (even though I was speaking naturally - I didn’t know at first it was AI), and it asked me for feedback (“what sort of sauce?”) in a very understandable way. Drive-thrus are famously a bad experience - I’m happy to see improvement here.
I’m shocked that anybody with a smartphone is still ordering by talking into a voice box, regardless of whether it’s a human or an AI on the other end.
There’s a Starbucks near me that is pickup-only. You mobile order, and inside there’s just a rack where the employees set out drinks as they’re made. Walking inside felt like I’d stepped into a glorious alternate reality.
In a way, we need these "pioneers" who operate at scale to serve the dual goals of giving lessons learned to future developers of AI tech, and proving to us that the technology is just not ready to supplant this kind of work.
Why order when you arrive at the place? Just have people talk to their phones, and make sure the order has some sanity checks and orders something similar to what they can order online? There's less noise talking to your phone, and you can do it without being in line.
Well there's a few things that have to go right for that scenario to work. It's not impossible but I'd imagine the number of people that could take advantage of it is small.
If I have a passenger that can use the phone - it will be infinitely easier to have them place an order via app. They can look at the map, set up navigation, read through the menu and handle getting the order in, etc.
The driver needs to know where the restaurant is. A lot of time when I'm getting fast food - I'm on the interstate, I don't really know where I am, I just know I saw a sign saying the next exit has a Taco Bell. If anything asks me to confirm the restaurant location as 123 Main Street or in some city - I have no idea if that's right or not.
Maybe if it integrates with Android Auto and Google Maps so I can place an order and get navigated, that could work.
Another big issue is knowing the menu. I definitely wouldn't want to sit and have a robot read me the whole menu. There are some places where I could order without seeing the menu but - if you don't go very often you probably need to see the menu. And if you're not going very often you probably don't have their app on your phone anyway.
The apps don't take how busy the restaurants are into account. If I get to a place and it's slammed, I'll look around a bit for something else less busy, because I want to get back on the road. So I'm not really all that committed to a particular place anyway.
I also tend to not trust the apps. I can't tell you how many times I've placed an order only to find out they're out of something when I get there. If I order at the speaker I get that feedback immediately and can pick something else (or somewhere else).
Basically you need to have all of the following be true:
* Have nobody else in the car that could operate the phone for you
* Know the restaurant location
* Know the menu
* Have the app
* Ready to commit to any wait
* Trust the app is correct
> deliberately trolling the AI with absurd orders that would make even experienced drive-thru workers question their life choices
this actually worries me about ai slightly, what happens where people get even more comfortable working abusive language into their customer service interactions- I'm not sure that intentionally dehumanizing human-like interaction is going to have great side-effects!
I'm gonna be that guy - was this article written by AI? Where were the actual clever/funny/bizarre anecdotes that the (IRL) Darwin awards are known for?
This feels like a regurgitated summary of a run of the mill story...Taco Bell tried out AI ordering, and it didn't quite work (some people even trolled it!), and they had to rethink it. So crazy lol!
This feels like a very knee-jerk reaction to this and not what's actually the case: a new system with weird bugs.
It just seems very similar to the sort of articles that came out when online ordering or touchscreen ordering first appeared.
Like one of the big knocks on the Taco Bell AI ordering was that it let people ask for a 1000 waters on their order, which yeah is dumb, but it's the kind of thing the humans actually making the food are going to catch.
I don't understand the appeal of drive throughs?s?
In my area there are dozens of people idling for 10-15 minutes in the Starbucks drive through even though we have a municipal "no idling" bylaw to reduce emissions. The line is so long it interferes with traffic on the street. It also seems like sitting in your car inhaling CO from other people's tailpipes for 15 minutes is bad for you?
Many of the local fast food places have also switched to "drive through only" at night, which means they can get away with not having public washrooms (which are required by law when serving food). On a recent road trip my friends and I spent an hour driving place-to-place at 10pm on a Saturday trying to find a place to get a late dinner and use the toilets.
Drive-throughs also create an insane, perverse incentive for customers inside the store. Between online ordering and drive through staff are completely ignoring the actual walk-up counter traffic, because that's the only traffic where corporate doesn't track service time. I've stopped going into a lot of locations on impulse because I know they'll be understaffed and you have to book your shitty lunch 20 minutes in advance with an app. On the flip side these companies are doing promos with free delivery, where a taxi drives a burger to my house for no extra cost.
In short, I understand why companies would like drive throughs - they can have fewer staff and they game laws around the indoor dining area. Their end game is probably drive-thru only ghost kitchens with no indoor dining at all.
On a personal level I don't understand why consumers prefer drive-through (except for the feedback spiral of in-restaurant experiences becoming shit because of drive throughs). And on a policy level I don't understand why municipalities are permitting ever-larger double drive throughs with longer queues and shorter in-restaurant hours? It creates a hollowed-out neighborhood with no walkability that feels miserable.
28 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 47.4 ms ] threadUsing open ended natural language to make a multiple choice selection (choose a taco) seems like a way to massively complicate a simple problem.
What next - have a humanoid robot bring the food out to the car?
Looking forward to more "AI Darwin Award" stories!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xop9py8zBY
https://youtube.com/shorts/FDZj6DCWlfc
https://www.tiktok.com/@90daygrinder/video/75355084374472983... (another example from a different chain)
There’s a Starbucks near me that is pickup-only. You mobile order, and inside there’s just a rack where the employees set out drinks as they’re made. Walking inside felt like I’d stepped into a glorious alternate reality.
If I have a passenger that can use the phone - it will be infinitely easier to have them place an order via app. They can look at the map, set up navigation, read through the menu and handle getting the order in, etc.
The driver needs to know where the restaurant is. A lot of time when I'm getting fast food - I'm on the interstate, I don't really know where I am, I just know I saw a sign saying the next exit has a Taco Bell. If anything asks me to confirm the restaurant location as 123 Main Street or in some city - I have no idea if that's right or not.
Maybe if it integrates with Android Auto and Google Maps so I can place an order and get navigated, that could work.
Another big issue is knowing the menu. I definitely wouldn't want to sit and have a robot read me the whole menu. There are some places where I could order without seeing the menu but - if you don't go very often you probably need to see the menu. And if you're not going very often you probably don't have their app on your phone anyway.
The apps don't take how busy the restaurants are into account. If I get to a place and it's slammed, I'll look around a bit for something else less busy, because I want to get back on the road. So I'm not really all that committed to a particular place anyway.
I also tend to not trust the apps. I can't tell you how many times I've placed an order only to find out they're out of something when I get there. If I order at the speaker I get that feedback immediately and can pick something else (or somewhere else).
Basically you need to have all of the following be true:
* Have nobody else in the car that could operate the phone for you * Know the restaurant location * Know the menu * Have the app * Ready to commit to any wait * Trust the app is correct
this actually worries me about ai slightly, what happens where people get even more comfortable working abusive language into their customer service interactions- I'm not sure that intentionally dehumanizing human-like interaction is going to have great side-effects!
This feels like a regurgitated summary of a run of the mill story...Taco Bell tried out AI ordering, and it didn't quite work (some people even trolled it!), and they had to rethink it. So crazy lol!
Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 waters - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45065391 - Aug 2025 (186 comments)
It just seems very similar to the sort of articles that came out when online ordering or touchscreen ordering first appeared.
Like one of the big knocks on the Taco Bell AI ordering was that it let people ask for a 1000 waters on their order, which yeah is dumb, but it's the kind of thing the humans actually making the food are going to catch.
In my area there are dozens of people idling for 10-15 minutes in the Starbucks drive through even though we have a municipal "no idling" bylaw to reduce emissions. The line is so long it interferes with traffic on the street. It also seems like sitting in your car inhaling CO from other people's tailpipes for 15 minutes is bad for you?
Many of the local fast food places have also switched to "drive through only" at night, which means they can get away with not having public washrooms (which are required by law when serving food). On a recent road trip my friends and I spent an hour driving place-to-place at 10pm on a Saturday trying to find a place to get a late dinner and use the toilets.
Drive-throughs also create an insane, perverse incentive for customers inside the store. Between online ordering and drive through staff are completely ignoring the actual walk-up counter traffic, because that's the only traffic where corporate doesn't track service time. I've stopped going into a lot of locations on impulse because I know they'll be understaffed and you have to book your shitty lunch 20 minutes in advance with an app. On the flip side these companies are doing promos with free delivery, where a taxi drives a burger to my house for no extra cost.
In short, I understand why companies would like drive throughs - they can have fewer staff and they game laws around the indoor dining area. Their end game is probably drive-thru only ghost kitchens with no indoor dining at all.
On a personal level I don't understand why consumers prefer drive-through (except for the feedback spiral of in-restaurant experiences becoming shit because of drive throughs). And on a policy level I don't understand why municipalities are permitting ever-larger double drive throughs with longer queues and shorter in-restaurant hours? It creates a hollowed-out neighborhood with no walkability that feels miserable.