Fast Food Restaurants Shift To Tech That Take & Make Orders
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Fast food restaurants are getting even faster as they bypass traditional methods to take and even make orders. Some experts believe the new technology could lead to job cuts.
Jonathan Alvarez has only 30 minutes for lunch so when the McDonald's near his job added self-order kiosks, he saw them as valuable time-savers.
"It's superbly faster. It's almost 50-percent as fast," said Alvarez.
McDonalds says skipping the traditional cashier is part of its experience of the future. At some locations, you can order food through the McDonald's app and pick it up at the drive thru or even get table service.
McDonalds plans to have kiosks in most of its 14,000 restaurants in the U.S. by 2020.
The fast food giant is not alone as more and more quick serve restaurants add ordering through kiosks or mobile apps.
Bypassing cashiers could be just the beginning.
Flippy - a burger flipping robot - will be used in select Caliburger restaurants next year.
The machine uses artificial intelligence to identify foods and cook them properly.
Martin Ford, author of "Rise of the Robots" believes more fast food restaurants will adopt this type of technology in the future - leading to fewer jobs.
"For me, it's easy to imagine a fast food store employing maybe 30 percent fewer employees or maybe even half as many employees," said Ford.
Zoriah Foushee helps customers manage the new kiosks at McDonald's.She's not concerned she'll lose her job.
"I feel like there's always going to be a need for someone to be up there. Someone to fix something if something is wrong," said Foushee.
These kiosks could soon be as familiar as ATMS.
The kiosks are expected to arrive in about 2,500 McDonald's restaurants by the end of the year.
