McDonald's Drive Through Bot may Violate Law

Been following work by retailers to improve efficiency.  This example seems a weak attempt at blocking new tech.

McDonald’s drive-thru AI bot may have broken privacy law   By Ryan Daws | June 11, 2021 | TechForge Media   in AI News

McDonald’s announced earlier this month that it was deploying an AI chatbot to handle its drive-thru orders, but it turns out it might break privacy law.

The chatbot is the product of a voice recognition company McDonald’s snapped up in 2019 called Apprente which is now known as McD Tech Labs.

McDonald’s deployed the chatbots to ten of its restaurants in Chicago, Illinois. And there lies the issue.

The state of Illinois has some of the strictest data privacy laws in the country. For example, the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) states: “No private entity may collect, capture, purchase, receive through trade, or otherwise obtain a person’s or a customer’s biometric identifier or biometric information.”

One resident, Shannon Carpenter, has sued McDonald’s on behalf of himself and other Illinois residents—claiming the fast food biz has broken BIPA by not receiving explicit written consent from its customers to process their voice data.

“Plaintiff, like the other class members, to this day does not know the whereabouts of his voiceprint biometrics which defendant obtained,” the lawsuit states.

The software is said to not only transcribe speech into text but also process it to predict personal information about the customers such as their “age, gender, accent, nationality, and national origin.”

Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that McDonald’s has been testing AI software at its drive-thrus since last year.   ... " 

One resident, Shannon Carpenter, has sued McDonald’s on behalf of himself and other Illinois residents—claiming the fast food biz has broken BIPA by not receiving explicit written consent from its customers to process their voice data.

“Plaintiff, like the other class members, to this day does not know the whereabouts of his voiceprint biometrics which defendant obtained,” the lawsuit states.  The software is said to not only transcribe speech into text but also process it to predict personal information about the customers such as their “age, gender, accent, nationality, and national origin.”    Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that McDonald’s has been testing AI software at its drive-thrus since last year.  ... ' 

Predicting Your Order

 Have been experiencing fast food faster over these months,  and also wondered how fast, precise and predictive it can be.  Here  quick look at some  examples.

.Drive-Throughs That Predict Your Order? Restaurants Are Thinking Fast

The New York Times, Julie Creswell, March 13, 2021

Many restaurants expect digital ordering and drive-throughs to remain key business channels, and some are testing artificial intelligence (AI) to predict and suggest personalized orders. McDonald's acquired Israeli AI company Dynamic Yield to boost sales via personalized digital promotions. Burger King is modernizing its drive-through with its Deep Flame AI system to suggest foods based on daily popularity, and testing Bluetooth technology to identify loyal customers and show their previous orders to calculate their probability of ordering the same items. Restaurant Brands International (RBI) hopes to deploy predictive personalized systems at more than 10,000 of its North American restaurants by mid-2022. RBI's Duncan Fulton envisions customers having "the ability to automatically reorder things and pay for the items at the board, which, ultimately, speeds up the window time, allowing you to collect your food and go on your way."  ... 

McDonald’s Publishes Playbook for reopening Restaurants

Useful thoughts from a major player.  My own observation is that they have done an excellent job with the drive-through and pickup only operation.

McDonald’s publishes playbook for reopening restaurants
 With discussion and 17 expert comments in Retailwire
by George Anderson

McDonald’s, like many companies across the U.S., is chomping at the bit to get back to its normal business, but the new normal described in the fast-food giant’s guide to reopening restaurants looks a lot different than the one that existed before the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The “The Dine-In Reopening Playbook” published for franchisees and company-owned restaurant managers describes in detail the process for welcoming customers back to eat at the chain’s more than 14,000 U.S. locations.

The process begins with regional officials from McDonald’s visiting restaurants once local or state government announce an easing of COVID-19-related restrictions.  The company’s representative consults with franchisees to determine whether or not to reopen for dine-in customers.  ....  " 

McDonald's Bet Big On a Smart Idea. Now It's Saving Lives

Not only in selling burgers, but also as a medical services model.  The very first time I saw a crowded drive-through it  made me think of by Queueing analysis training.  And thinking: 'There is a model we can readily do useful analytics on!'   And tune it to do things much better.

McDonald's Bet Big On This Smart Idea. Now It's Saving Lives

McDonald's didn't invent the drive-through, but it helped make it ubiquitous and tripled down on it as a business model   By Bill Murphy Jr.  in Inc.

Who would have imagined that the McDonald's drive-through would become such a beloved symbol of our times?

But it's true, for at least two reasons -- both of which have to do with Covid-19, and ultimately saving lives.

First, the only way that restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and other fast-food franchises can stay open many places now, is to shift to an all-drive-through and all-delivery model. It's not ideal, but it keeps part of our retail food system working while maximizing social distancing, and keeps employees on payrolls.

Second, the drive-through model that fast-food franchises like McDonald's pioneered is now a critical part of our medical system. The rise of drive-through Covid-19 testing locations enable medical tests, while limiting exposure of people with symptoms to other patients and medical personnel. ... "

Autonomous Cars and the Drive Thru

A considerable discussion and walk-through example of the potential interactions of drive thrus and autonomous cars.  With detailed consideration of the business implications.    Had given this some thought before as how the interaction might work.   Makes the point that drive-thrus are very big business.

AI Trends: Drive-Thrus and Autonomous Cars in AITrends

By Dr. Lance Eliot, CEO, Techbrium Inc. - techbrium.com - and is a regular contributor as our AI Trends Insider, and serves as the Executive Director of the Cybernetic AI Self-Driving Car Institute and has published 11 books on the future of driverless cars ... '

Thinking Drive-Through Data

Been involved in several drive-through retail analyses.    So this is interesting.  It is pointed out that this will allow the connect of your car generated data to your Amazon online purchase data.  Deserves some thought.  In the Atlantic.

The Grocery Automat

An ATM-style, robotic grocery store could be coming 
Des Moines, Iowa, might be the first market to test a standalone grocery store that is a cross between "an ATM and a very large vending machine," using a robotic system called Oasis24Seven, reports Ashlee Kieler of Consumerist. Grocery stores are increasing using technology to monitor shopping as well as tackle in-store theft. ... " 

This idea has been tried before in a number of drive-through layouts.   Examined this in 2006/07 in the form of the AutoCart Supercenter.    Note the system described here is a very large vending machine rather than a supercenter store.    The footprint is far smaller.  The Robotics in either case can be done today.  Stocking the larger form would seem to be far easier.

Drive Through Supermarket

The drive through supermarket is a concept I have studied for some time.  Here Tesco tests the concept.  Baldock is in the county of Hertfordshire which is just North of London.  And more on this.  See also the autocart concept.

Tesco Trials Drive Through Supermarket

Long time readers of this blog will remember that we examined this topic sometime ago and talked to the group building a system in the US: Autocart. Now Tesco announces the test of the drive-through concept in the UK. I am researching the status of the idea in the US. Let me know if you have any information.

From Car Shopping: AutoCart

An area of interest for me has been the history and evolution of retail spaces and how these can be utilized by consumer package goods companies. Clarence Saunders of the Piggly Wiggly chain claims to have created the first self-service grocery chain in 1916. Since the 1940s there have been many versions of drive through convenience and pharmas, common today. A company that is trying to take this drive-through experience to a yet more convenient and consolidated level is Autocart, which I have posted about previously. Have also had a conversation with the founders. One particular aspect of this idea was to have a warehouse with many SKUs connected to the drive through, essentially providing a supercenter selection with drive through convenience. Press releases have indicated that their first center would be built in Albuquerque NM in 2006, and a release last year that mentioned Oklahoma City, but I have seen no indication that this came about. If you take a look at their current web site it appears that they are creating a number of variations of the basic idea. A recent paper included in their site says that a Midwestern US retailer will be testing their AutoTram concept in early 2008. Concept is intriguing. Still waiting for the experience of an actual implementation.

Stay-in-car shopping : Autocart

Stay-in-car shopping | www.azstarnet.com �

I found this during some research on the drive-through superstore concept, note it mentions IFTF.

AutoCart revs up drive-through supercenter

I wrote about this before in Future Now ... AutoCart revs up drive-through supercenter. Still looking for more details, would appreciate anything people can send along.