{"id":557366,"date":"2021-06-08T17:22:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T21:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=557366"},"modified":"2021-06-08T17:22:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T21:22:18","slug":"mcdonalds-is-testing-voice-automated-drive-thrus-in-wake-of-15-minimum-wage-proposals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mcdonalds-is-testing-voice-automated-drive-thrus-in-wake-of-15-minimum-wage-proposals\/","title":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s Is Testing Voice Automated Drive-Thrus In Wake Of $15 Minimum Wage Proposals"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmcdonalds-is-testing-voice-automated-drive-thrus-in-wake-of-15-minimum-wage-proposals%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=557366&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1213959481.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><span>As policymakers nationwide consider minimum wage hikes, executives at McDonald\u2019s are testing new ways to automate their restaurants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>During an investor conference last week, McDonald\u2019s CEO Chris Kempczinski <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nrn.com\/quick-service\/mcdonald-s-tests-automated-drive-thru-order-taking-chicago-area\"><span>announced<\/span><\/a><span> that the fast food giant is experimenting with voice-ordering technology at ten restaurants in the Chicago area. The system is reportedly 85% accurate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Kempczinski believes that the technology will appear in restaurants across the country within the next few years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThere is a big leap between going from 10 restaurants in Chicago to 14,000 restaurants across the U.S. with an infinite number of promo permutations, menu permutations, dialect permutations, weather \u2014 I mean, on and on and on and on,\u201d said Kempczinski. \u201cDo I think in five years from now you\u2019re going to see a voice in the drive-thru? I do, but I don\u2019t think that this is going to be something that happens in the next year or so.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Two years ago, McDonald\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2019\/09\/10\/mcdonalds-acquires-apprente\/'\"><span>purchased<\/span><\/a><span> several artificial intelligence startups. Apprente, for example, can automate voice-based ordering in multiple languages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Other fast food executives confirmed that lawmakers\u2019 attempts to raise the minimum wage are driving the push toward automation. Ed Rensi \u2014 chairman of global fast food franchising company FAT Brands and former CEO of McDonald\u2019s \u2014 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/technology\/former-mcdonalds-ceo-15-minimum-wage-automation\"><span>told<\/span><\/a><span> FOX Business that higher minimum wages would pressure restaurants to increase their prices as expenses rise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhen you raise prices 1%, you lose about 1% of your transaction costs,\u201d Rensi commented. \u201cAnd you have to work really hard to recover that through promotion, marketing, you know, all kinds of local events and it\u2019s not an easy thing to do, particularly when you\u2019re living on a very high number of transactions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cYou got a choice, you go broke by raising prices or you go broke by losing money because you can\u2019t raise prices,\u201d Rensi added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Since President Biden assumed office in January, lawmakers have drafted multiple proposals to raise the federal minimum wage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Most notably, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/541980-sinema-pushes-back-on-criticism-of-her-vote-against-15-minimum-wage-implying\"><span>introduced<\/span><\/a><span> a bill that would have raised the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour alongside the passage of the $1.9 trillion<\/span><i><span> American Rescue Plan<\/span><\/i><span>. The legislation failed in the Senate after eight Democrats \u2014 including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) \u2014 voted against the measure alongside their Republican colleagues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>One month later, Sinema joined forces with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/minimum-wage-congress_n_60771d6fe4b001befb6fc904\"><span>raise<\/span><\/a><span> the federal minimum wage to $11 per hour. Romney told HuffPost that he hoped for other centrist Senators to form a coalition around the proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A recent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/shapiro-debunking-the-15-minimum-wage\"><span>study<\/span><\/a><span> from the Congressional Budget Office revealed that although a $15 minimum wage would increase salaries for 900,000 people, it would also leave 1.4 million Americans unemployed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span>member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As policymakers nationwide consider minimum wage hikes, executives at McDonald\u2019s are testing new ways to automate their restaurants.During an investor conference last week, McDonald\u2019s CEO Chris Kempczinski announced that the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279670,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1213959481.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"McDonald\u2019s Is Testing Voice Automated Drive-Thrus In Wake Of $15 Minimum Wage Proposals","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-557366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1213959481.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"McDonald\u2019s Is Testing Voice Automated Drive-Thrus In Wake Of $15 Minimum Wage Proposals","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}