We’re Not Asking, We Know You Want Fries with That

Predictive technology anticipates fast-food orders

The term “quick-service restaurant” may soon take on a whole new meaning. In fact, a few restaurants are getting so quick that their employees may know what you want for lunch before you do.

No, it’s not magic, fantasy, futurism or science fiction. A robot manager known as “HyperActive Bob” is at work in 10 quick-service restaurants in and around Pittsburgh, using cameras and databases to figure out what customers want even before the orders are placed. Bob then oversees the crew preparing the food to make sure the service is prompt and that every sandwich is fresh. He even frees his human managerial counterpart to concentrate on customer service.

Despite Bob’s seemingly superhuman management skills, customers won’t see a mechanical man clanking around the kitchen of the local McDonald’s. Bob’s a disembodied presence. Just the same, his creators at Pittsburgh-based HyperActive Technologies, as well as the fry cooks who do his bidding, insist Bob’s more deserving of the pronoun “he” than “it.”

Bob uses rooftop cameras (usually one for each entrance) to track vehicles pulling into the parking lot. He senses the presence of cars and trucks about a minute and a half before they reach the drive-through order panel, or from three to five minutes before disembarking passengers saunter up to the counter. In the quick-serve business, where ace chefs can grill a small burger in 60 seconds, those few minutes can prove crucial.

Two or three additional cameras can monitor the restaurant lobby, tracing the progress of customers moving through the queues. The cameras record the length of each segment of the wait, from the time it takes to order to how long patrons wait for their food. The results serve as a troubleshooting measure for human managers: Today, counter help record times by pushing a button, a system that invites cheating.

Bob learns the store’s patterns

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Date Listed: 2004-11-04

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Industry: Restaurants
Category: Trends
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