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Waze's traffic navigation app already shows ads prodding drivers to swing by fast-food joints like Dunkin' Donuts and Taco Bell. Now it's adding a new item to its menu—the ability to place orders at some shops.
On Tuesday, the Google-owned app will start letting drivers purchase coffee and other items from Dunkin' Donuts for pickup along their way. It's the first time that Waze has offered this kind of "order ahead" option, but unlikely to be the last.
If all goes well with the Dunkin' Donuts test, Waze plans to team up with other merchants so its millions of users can order pizza, reserve parking spaces, fill prescriptions and even buy groceries without having to open another app on their phones.
"It could be almost anything that a driver could order ahead and have ready for pick up," said Jordan Grossman, head of Waze's business partnerships in North America.
They should dispatch drones to bring the donuts to your car while you're stuck in morning traffic.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday March 29 2017, @06:44PM (3 children)
How long does it take for Dunkin Donuts to hand you a reheated coffee and a donut? Or is this for buying an egg sandwich?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 29 2017, @07:00PM (2 children)
That's a good point. If there's any kind of line, I don't see how this is going to help much; you'll still have to wait in line when you get there, unless maybe they have a separate line for the Waze orderers.
Where this makes more sense is with things that take longer to prepare. So if I want a sandwich, for instance (esp. a custom order), I'd be able to pre-order it, and the restaurant would know when I'm due to arrive there and be able to make it just before I get there, having it ready when I roll up. One problem I see is: how do you handle people ordering while driving? That could be dangerous. Texting and driving is bad enough, but at least there it's possible to use voice control. Ordering from a 5" smartphone screen while driving (assuming you don't have a passenger to do it for you) would be very dangerous, though perhaps not so much if you're stuck at a long red light. But if you ordered *before* you started driving (and the restaurant didn't start on your order until you were closer, in case it's a long drive, so that your food doesn't sit out too long), that would work out great.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 29 2017, @09:21PM (1 child)
You guys aren't thinking big enough. The Waze order ahead feature is so that Dunkin' Donuts can replace its human workers with a donut dispenser that will hand you your order when you go through the drive-thru. The only reason they still employ humans is that computers aren't yet quite able to understand what the customers are saying; Waze eliminates that.
That's why I was taking it to the next logical hop with drones. Order comes in via Waze, Dunkin' site prepares the payload, drone flies it to your car. Also works if you're sitting in your home and you start jonesing for donuts and you're within the range of the drones.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday March 30 2017, @01:58AM
Given the capabilities of Siri/Alexa/Google for voice recognition now, I sincerely doubt it would be difficult with one of these voice recognition schemes to recognize limited sets of products in orders most of the time. (If the customer became frustrated or there was real difficulty in recognition, there could always be a "connect to operator" option which wouldn't even have to be local...)
Well, I guess there is the issue that DD is traditionally a New England chain, so maybe they'd need a "Southie" edition for voice recognition. E.g., "bananer muffin" = banana muffin, "lahdge iced regulah" = large iced coffee with cream and sugar, "bawstawn cream" = Boston cream donut, etc.