McDonalds definitely invests in automation, but the goal isn't to replace humans entirely. Uber also has much higher marginal labor costs than McDonalds does and would benefit a lot more from automation.

Examples of automation at McDonalds:

Self serve order kiosks http://www.businessinsider.com/what-self-serve-kiosks-at-mcd...

Automated beverage dispensers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k26g3YqAsfA

Digital menu boards that update based on conditions http://www.eater.com/2015/11/11/9716058/mcdonalds-weather-me...

And then of course all the tech in their kitchen that take out all the guesswork (timed friers and the like).

One thing they do now is put the drive-in order-taker off-site at a call center.

I guess not so recent, considering this article is from 2006: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/technology/11fast.html?pag...

This could be something worth fully automating -- they have a limited number of options on the menu, and a less-limited but still defined number of permutations on those options. That problem space may be small enough for converting text-to-speech. The downside is that you'd still have to have someone on-call to try to rework any order statements the system has a low reliability score on.

I don't understand why they don't have an app yet for ordering (at the drive-in and maybe delivery too).

The combination of app-based ordering and drive-through delivery is one I strongly believe to be underutilized.

Uber gets to use a massive amount of physical assets without any investment in those assets. I imagine their future with automation is the same. No way they want to buy their own fleets of cars, they will just let you lend them your car when you don't use it.

Maybe (surely) there will be a squeeze on fees, but automation should move the income from active to semi passive for car owners.

Looking at mcdonnalds doing automation is just one avenue restaurant automation will happen.It's just as likely that some other company/startup will lead, for example momentum machines' burger robot(assuming not vaporware) or eatsa's restaurant model.

They already have machines that take your order through a touchscreen in some McDonalds... that's half the jobs gone in one swoop!