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After man orders 18,000 waters, Taco Bell reconsiders AI drive-through [1]
['Rob Beschizza']
Date: 2025-08-30
Funny videos of Taco Bell's hapless AI drive-through system have made the restaurant chain reconsider its use of the technology. One customer managed to put in an order for 18,000 cups of water, a perfectly wet example of how the system slows and snarls human workers and diners—exactly the opposite of what the AI is supposed to do.
in another a person got increasingly angry as the AI repeatedly asked him to add more drinks to his order. … Taco Bell's Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dane Mathews told The Wall Street Journal that deploying the voice AI has had its challenges.
Check out how the WSJ leads that story: "The most transformative technology in over a century may have finally found its limit: ordering tacos." I know it's a "sensible chuckle," but I can't help but think that a lot of people really believe that chatbots are up there with antibiotics, nuclear weapons and computers.
[Taco Bell Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dane Mathews] said he would work with restaurants to help them figure it out. "For our teams, we'll help coach them: at your restaurant, at these times, we recommend you use voice AI or recommend that you actually really monitor voice AI and jump in as necessary."
Read: "we plan to get rid of all these people tomorrow and will eat any AI system that lets us plan it today."
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