Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
ndiddy | on: An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry
It takes longer than ordering with a cashier, it keeps trying to upsell you, and it's always out of receipt paper because unsurprisingly the company that isn't willing to pay a person to take orders is also not willing to pay a person to maintain the kiosks.
Sohcahtoa82 | parent | next
> It takes longer than ordering with a cashier

Depends on what you're ordering and who the cashier is.

If your order is the happy path of no customizations of a combo with an experienced cashier, it can be done in seconds, for sure. "Medium #4 with a Diet Coke", pay, done.

But if you customize your burger or ordering a lot of items a la carte and you're dealing with a new cashier that has weak English skills, good fucking luck. You'll likely need to wait for them to figure out they need to call someone over to help, have to repeat your order, and you end up spending far more time.

> it keeps trying to upsell you

Yeah, I'll agree that's obnoxious, especially when it's trying to upsell you something that's already on your order. I ordered a combo. I don't need you to add another fry.

Silamoth | parent | next
Hmm. I’ve never really had those issues. It’s also much faster and easier than ordering with a human. I guess it does try to upsell you, but humans often do, too. And to me, it’s worth it to just click “No” in exchange for the added convenience (mostly in getting my order right).

I have had them run out of receipts, but it’s never mattered for me. If I’m dining in, the plastic number you carry to your table makes sure I get my food. And if I’m taking it to-go, they always find me anyways.

ryandrake | root | parent
> It’s also much faster and easier than ordering with a human.

I'm not sure how that could be. I can walk up to the counter and say "Big Mac Large Fry Small Coke" faster than you can navigate the first screen of the kiosk, and a skilled counter worker can key that in and be done before I even get my credit card out.

Silamoth | root | parent | next
The problem, I’m a picky eater. I never order something that simple. I always need it with “No X” or “Only Y”. Cashiers often struggle with that, even if they understand me well (which they don’t always). It’s easier for me to see everything an item comes with and make sure I’m entering my order correctly.
necovek | root | parent
McDonalds' menu is not designed for folk like you. In my part of the world, we had traditional fast-food joints where the question would be inverse: out of the things you can see and add to your burger, pick a few. That is very efficient with a human prepping your burger.
NavinF | root | parent
Hm? McDonalds is one of the best for customization. Everything is removable and the software knows the calorie count of each ingredient so the total that shows up next to each item in the cart is accurate
doug_durham | root | parent
You have to wait in line behind several people to get to the point where you can talk to the cashier. Most McDonalds have several kiosks. There is usually little or no line. I can place my order grab a table.
marknutter | parent
It's easily one of the most intuitive and straightforward kiosks out there today and you don't have to wait for one of the cashiers to notice you nor worry about them punching in your order incorrectly.
Silamoth | root | parent
Glad someone else feels the same way! Knowing that I enter my order in correctly is the biggest win there for me as a picky eater. The cashier is just entering it into a computer anyways, so it makes sense for me to enter it in myself. I honestly wonder why more restaurants don’t do this. It’s not that hard to wrap a halfway decent UI around the system you already have.
teiferer | root | parent | next
Restaurants, pubs etc. serve multiple purposes.

If it's purely about the food, receiving it, consuming it, then sure, get the human out of the loop, interact with a machine. Ideally even the preparation is done by a machine. No human error or hair involved. Why even go there, let it be delivered to your home.

But these places are also about the experience of social connection. The bar keeper, the waiter, the chef. They are all involved in this experience and the actual food is "just" one component, one detail, albeit an important one. My favorite restaurants would be nothing without the people there.

It's similar with music. It's not just about the produced sound waves. The musician forms a social bond with the audience. Even when listening to a recording, my mind is re-living or at least imagining a live sitting, that connection with the musician. No machine generated music will ever be able to replace that.

necovek | root | parent
I am more concerned with getting the right order and not with entering the right one. McDonalds will still get it wrong when you have a complex "change" of defaults even if it's entered correctly.

Other places optimize for this better by not having too many hand-overs between order and preparation.