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Why not just use a call center for this? Someone pulls up to the speaker, and someone in another part of the world takes their order and puts it into the restaurant’s system. Surely that would be easier and have a greater chance of success than voice gen?

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Presumably because the idea is to save money, and a call center forever would be more expensive but the far more realistic issue, if unlike an AI that could provide a consistent on brand experience, with a call center your experience would be hit or miss every time and drive thoughts are already not usually a great experience so a low wage call center would probably be even worse. Taking away jobs is certainly an issue in itself but I imagine overall this will mean a more consistent experience that they can improve over time.

They've been doing that since 2006. I guess this is next step.

source: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/technology/the-longdistan...

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