The machines continue advancing and displacing humans in some areas of work and one of the last steps has been in the hospitality industry. If we have already been able to see premises with robots serving or cleaning tables, the latest has been an automated McDonald’s without staff serving customers.
It is in Texas, in the city of Fort Worth. Over there, touch screens replaced employees who worked at the cash desk or at the McAuto window. In them, there is no longer an employee delivering the orders, but a food and drink conveyor.
As one of the spokespersons explained to ‘The Guardian’, it is not a completely automated restaurant since it has a similar number of employees to the rest of the premises. However, they are not facing the public, so the client’s contact with the workers is practically non-existent.
In fact, the concept of this restaurant is designed for customers who are not going to eat inside, but rather to customers “on the move” that they only come to pick up their order to go. Hence, interactions with employees are more limited, since, they explain, it has “improved technology that allows the restaurant team to start preparing customer orders when they are around.” The goal, they explain, is to improve speed and accuracy.
This way, customers have the option of picking up their orders in a “pre-order lane” lane or ordering at the touchscreen kiosk inside the store.
This new concept, however, has not been without controversy, as it has been widely criticized by activists who demand better economic conditions for employees, who in many cases do not earn a living wage in most states.