Texas is home to McDonald’s first-ever fully automated takeaway restaurant. The franchise location is completely run by machines – robots – so customers don’t have to be bothered with poor customer service or talking to a person when they just want a quick bite at McDonald’s and want to get on with their day. The innovative restaurant is located outside of Fort Worth, Texas, and is home to some of the most advanced technology available in the restaurant industry.
Customers of this automated McDonald’s restaurant can order their food and receive their orders without having to interact with an “annoying” human being. Instead, people are forced to interact with machines that cannot think for themselves and can make all sorts of mistakes during the order-making process.
One TikTok user, who shares content on the Chinese-owned social media app under the handle FoodieMunster, reported on their first visit to the fully automated McDonald’s restaurant. The video of the TikToker’s visit to the first-of-its-kind McDonald’s automated restaurant shared everything on the TikTok app and has sparked a major debate among other people on the Chinese app about whether or not McDonald’s should fire all of its employees and just use robots to serve up fast food.
Customers at this Fort Worth area McDonald’s order their food on large touch screens near the counter. Unlike other McDonald’s locations, there are no people in the store to welcome customers when they enter the door and arrive at the counter to place their orders.
“If you go inside, you’ll see that it’s like no other McDonald’s you’ve been to before. There’s one kiosk to order your food,” the TikToker explained. “You can go up front and pick up there. It’s designed for you to go in and out.”
In another TikTok clip that has gone viral among foodies, FoodieMunster ordered from the McDonald’s drive-thru. Instead of receiving the completed order from a person, the food was delivered via a conveyor belt machine.
“When you pull in [to the drive-thru], they will ask you for a code [you got when ordering]. And in no time, your food arrives. Got to say, it worked really well,” FoodieMunster said.
Although this McDonald’s location claims to be “fully automated,” human beings are still cooking the food in the kitchen. It might be a few more years before McDonald’s invests in machinery and robots to do the cooking, too.
On TikTok, many people shared comments about the automated McDonald’s outside of Forth Worth.
“Finally, my order will be quick and accurate.”
Someone agreed: “Awesome. No more attitude at the counter.”
“Maybe my order will finally be right,” another said.
Another comment read: “Love it. No attitudes, crankiness, or incompetence, and as it moves to other parts of dining – no tips!”
However, some people felt that they’d prefer a human to interact with.
“And if they forget an item, who are you supposed to tell, the robot?” one person asked.
“No thanks. I love the people that work there,” another user wrote. “I want to hear voices and see faces. I want to see smiles at both windows.”