As the old adage goes, we may not live in underwater metropolises or fly around in jet packs or airborne cars, but we have almost instantaneous access to a litany of fast foods, and that's pretty darn close to living in the future.
We as Americans have become acquainted with the idea of food how we like it, exactly when we want it. Some of us even expect it.
Related: Here are the top foods America ordered from DoorDash in 2023
Drive thrus have always been a central part of that expectation. For those of us on long road trips, somewhere to be quickly, or folks who's just prefer not to get out of their car, they're a great way to get a meal on the go.
Especially following covid, when more and more people chose to socially distance, drive ins and pick up options at restaurants that didn't even have drive thru infrastructure became a commonplace part of life. Now, you'd be hard-pressed to find a town in the U.S. without at least one drive thru. It's simply a part of our American identity and culture.
New company creates bizarre drive thru feature
Now that we're firmly out of the pandemic age and into the artificial intelligence (AI) age, restaurants with drive thrus are trying to figure out the next best way to tempt customers in.
Enter Hi Auto, the tech company that enables many drive thrus around the country.
Hi Auto has been working on what it calls a voice cloning solution, which essentially takes several minutes of a person's voice, including "all the nuances of a particular person’s voice, including tone, accent and dialect," QSR Magazine writes.
From there, Hi Auto creates a voice product that's "indistinguishable from the original speaker," and can then be utilized for drive thru ordering services. No more awkward lag times wondering if somebody's actually there to take your order.
One such restaurant trying out Hi Auto's product is Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, a southern-style fast food restaurant with 130 locations that operate in 12 U.S. states and Canada. Lee's is partnering with former NFL star and radio show host Keith Byars to virtually take customers' orders.
And the collaboration isn't just expected to delight folks while they wait for their order.
“This collaboration not only enhanced our labor efficiency by saving approximately 5-6 hours daily, but also significantly improved order consistency and upselling conversions," Lee's CEO Ryan Weaver said.
Hi Auto is currently utilized in over 400 drive-thru locations around the U.S., but it expects if its success continues, that number could grow.
“Hi Auto’s AI voice cloning aims to humanize the customer drive-through experience, by giving automated attendants a 'real' voice," Hi Auto CEO Roy Baharav said. "For restaurants, having their own unique voice is essential in creating a memorable personal experience, and genuinely enhancing brand identity. We are rolling out the ability to clone voices at the national level as well as the local level, allowing franchisees to tailor the voice to their business needs. Just like with accuracy and speed, we are doing it at full scale at hundreds of stores.”
