McDonald’s customers react to automated drive-thru tests

McDonald’s announced a new partnership with IBM last week to automate the drive-thru process using artificial intelligence, and customers are feeling anxious. It began testing automated order taking at 10 Chicago locations this summer. While it wasn’t popular with users, the company is moving on to the next phase. Critics online have a whole range of predictions for what this might mean.

McDonald’s has developed all of its automated order-taking technology (AOT) so far through its McD Tech Labs subsidiary, which was formerly known as Apprente. McDonald’s, IBM and others joined forces Wednesday. Announcement McD tech Labs had been acquired by IBM for the purpose to improve McDonald’s AOT, both on the employee-facing and customer-facing side. The merger will be completed in December, and there’s no word yet on when AOT will go into wider use, but the press release indicates that the next phase of testing will take place in more areas around the U.S.

Commenters weren’t thrilled about this development for a number of reasons. One reason commenters were not excited about this development was the ongoing labor protests in the U.S. Many believed that McDonald’s was trying to pivot quickly to avoid paying higher wages to its workers. Many were also concerned about how current fast-food workers would treated when they were replaced. Some even raised concerns about Universal Basic Income (UBI).

Others had logistical and security concerns as well as ethical concerns. There were also a lot of references to pop culture and jokes. Here’s an overview of the reactions to McDonald’s AI project.