McDonald's is not going robotic anytime soon.

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Space50
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28 Apr 2022, 3:06 pm

How can they go robotic having restaurants without employees when they can't even get their shake machine to work?



Fnord
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28 Apr 2022, 3:16 pm

Easily.

Right now, McDonald Corp. is testing a voice-recognition system to take drive-through orders.

Other fast-food franchises are also testing other robotic systems.

Eventually, your Happy Meal will be delivered to you untouched by human hands.



kitesandtrainsandcats
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28 Apr 2022, 3:22 pm

This brings to mind that it can be fun to take a thing, play in Google, and see what comes up.

What results appear next to each other can range from interesting to hilarious.

For example, from just now:
"
Why McDonald's May Never Use Robots to Flip Burgers
https://www.nanalyze.com › 2018/08 › mcdonalds-rob...
Aug 24, 2018 — At the moment, it looks like they're focused on automation for taking orders. Robots that flip burgers don't appear to be happening just yet.

New McDonald's In Phoenix Run Entirely By Robots - News ...
https://newsexaminer.net › food › mcdonalds-to-open-r...
Visitors to the restaurant will see these new robots working in harmony at a speed of 50 times faster than the average McDonald's employee, with no chance of ...
May 22, 2015 · Uploaded by NewsExaminerTV
"


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lostonearth35
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28 Apr 2022, 4:03 pm

There's a Dairy Queen, or DQ, where I live that's not far from a McDonald's. Why aren't the DQ machines always broken? Just about all their desserts have ice cream, you'd think the machines would be broken all the time. I usually eat DQ during the summer and not once do I remember them ever saying they couldn't serve ice cream because the machines were broken.



kitesandtrainsandcats
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28 Apr 2022, 5:32 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
There's a Dairy Queen, or DQ, where I live that's not far from a McDonald's. Why aren't the DQ machines always broken?


Aw man, I miss our little county seat farm burg's DQ. :(
It went out of business 3 or 4 years ago because the owner was broke, and broken.
He'd gotten addicted to gambling.
No one has reopened it.


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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28 Apr 2022, 5:36 pm

A few decades ago in another city I had a friend who designed factory machinery.
Erik said that when you have a machine made out of 10,000 parts which are each 99% reliable, the probability math says it will never be in working condition.
I didn't check his math.
But I did laugh. :lol:


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28 Apr 2022, 5:50 pm

Space50 wrote:
How can they go robotic having restaurants without employees when they can't even get their shake machine to work?


Good point.


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28 Apr 2022, 5:51 pm

Image

And in anticipation of the computers and robots taking over,
I always try to be nice to our Roombas.


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D0rf
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28 Apr 2022, 7:10 pm

it will happen someday but the impending nature of full automization is largely a lie to try and get minimum wage workers to keep their heads down.

lostonearth35 wrote:
There's a Dairy Queen, or DQ, where I live that's not far from a McDonald's. Why aren't the DQ machines always broken? Just about all their desserts have ice cream, you'd think the machines would be broken all the time. I usually eat DQ during the summer and not once do I remember them ever saying they couldn't serve ice cream because the machines were broken.

McDonalds specifically have some weird agreement where they can only use one very specific prone to failure model of ice cream machine and they can only be fixed by the manufacturer of the machines.



superboyian
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30 Apr 2022, 4:34 pm

Probably won’t be a good decade or 2 until everything becomes robotic. With the rise of artificial intelligence and the rate technology has grown has been significant, especially within the last decade.


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old_comedywriter
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30 Apr 2022, 4:52 pm

Space50 wrote:
How can they go robotic having restaurants without employees when they can't even get their shake machine to work?

Shake it a few times. It'll work.
Fnord wrote:
Right now, McDonald Corp. is testing a voice-recognition system to take drive-through orders.

That'll work as well as the voice misdialer on my "smart" phone.

Can I get a self-driving car to use the drive through and order for me?


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04 May 2022, 9:49 pm

This thread reminds me of the robot restaurant on the Nickelodeon show Sam & Cat :arrow:








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nick007
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05 May 2022, 8:52 am

old_comedywriter wrote:
Space50 wrote:
How can they go robotic having restaurants without employees when they can't even get their shake machine to work?

Shake it a few times. It'll work.
Fnord wrote:
Right now, McDonald Corp. is testing a voice-recognition system to take drive-through orders.

That'll work as well as the voice misdialer on my "smart" phone.

Can I get a self-driving car to use the drive through and order for me?
I often hear people speaking very loud & clearly into their smart phones & their phones are trying to do everything except the one task the person is wanting to do. It sure seems like those AIs are intentionally doing that because they take great pleasure in frustrating the hell out of real people. The smarter technology becomes, the more complicated it is for the users.


D0rf wrote:
it will happen someday but the impending nature of full automization is largely a lie to try and get minimum wage workers to keep their heads down.
I think your very right about that. The federal minimum-wage has not risen in about 13 years so companies like Mc.Donald's actually replacing most of their workers with robots would cost em aLOT more money than they would save. Those machines are NOT cheap & neither is the needed maintenance & parts for those machines. Plus they would lose lots of customers because of the customers getting frustrated by not being able to order or not getting their order right. When I was a kid, me & mom would get frozen Cokes at Mc.Donald's but the machines were broken at least half the time so we quit going there for them & me & mom have not even ordered a frozen Coke there since I was a tween. I really like Mc.Donald's food but if the store would be closed for maintenance half the time I go or they get my order wrong or have another issue half the time, you can sure bet I would quit going for a long time. There's other fast food places & non-fast food restaurants that serve burgers & fries & I can buy food at the grocery store to cook in the toast-R-oven myself including fries. Part of the reason people get fast food is because of the convenience & making it too inconvenient for their customers to access would push loyal & potentially new customers away. It's one of those ideas that seem great on paper to the companies but they'll quickly find out after it's implicated that their bargain money saver is a giant waist.


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05 May 2022, 9:52 am

lostonearth35 wrote:
There's a Dairy Queen, or DQ, where I live that's not far from a McDonald's. Why aren't the DQ machines always broken? Just about all their desserts have ice cream, you'd think the machines would be broken all the time. I usually eat DQ during the summer and not once do I remember them ever saying they couldn't serve ice cream because the machines were broken.


McDonalds often fails to train people to maintain their ice cream machine. Ice cream is DQ's core product, so they'd have to prioritize their ice cream machines more than McDonalds does. It'd be more like a McDonalds without a working deep fryer if their ice cream machine broke.


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