The future is Macswineys, at least until a stainless steel rat takes up residence in one…
Interactive Voice Responders (IVRs) have been around for a long, long time in the call center world for calling menu trees; this is a extension of that. The McDonalds near my office has a “Hi, we’ll be right with you” blurb when you get to the speaker on either lane. and the Panda Express near my house has something similar, but it actually wants to start the order process, which means I get to repeat my order half the time.
It’ll be interesting to see if it works, or how long it takes for it to get quietly put out to pasture…
Or worse, have multiple custom items, or have a giant-ass laundry list of items. in the drive-thru. From the worker’s POV, park your car, come inside and place that giant-ass order, because the drive through line will ask you to park so they can serve the 5 people behind you that just want a medium cheeseburger combo with a diet coke and GTFO- I know the corporate owned store I worked at was graded on how fast they can churn that line, with a goal time of 90 seconds or less during the rush times.
I’ve easily out-run the self-checkout’s scale timers, because when I’m checking out, I go full efficiency sprint- if I have four cans of say, tuna, I’ll stack three cans with one hand poised over the bagging area scale and scan the fourth with the other hand. The local store actually has the delay turned almost completely off because people were complaining. I also mute the damn thing, because I’m there to check out, and not listen to bitchin’ betty about what I just scanned.
Touch screen? from a car? That’s crazy pants. Some of the busier places will park an employee out there with a tablet for mobile order taking (not payment taking) in order to keep the order pipeline full, but most places have upgraded from a mic/speaker box to digital signage which has the menuboard and will display your order in order to ensure that accuracy. With online ordering, I understand that some places will let you put in your confirmation number at the drive through for picking it up. Haven’t tried that myself, but I understand some places have that as an option.
That totally needs to be an easter egg.
No, it’s more like 43%, but there you go. 
