Self-driving KFC food truck in China has everyone saying the same thing
Compared to a decade ago, the way many of us order and consume fast food is pretty unrecognisable - apps like DoorDash and Deliveroo have changed the game.
Photos and a video of a novel-looking way to get KFC and other groceries to customers have gone viral this week though, with people speculating about how successful the method could become.
The posts show a self-driving mini truck in China, loaded up with heaters and filled to the brim with KFC orders ready to be eaten. The trucks are made by a company called Neolix, and KFC is just one of the partners that it's worked with in recent years.
Advert
It looks like people are able to approach the truck, scan a QR code and then make an order like they would for a delivery app.
Except, unlike one of those apps, the process is over way quicker, as the truck directs them to the right package and shelf for their food, which they can get out and leave with.
It's a pretty fascinating idea, and can presumably only work if you have quite a typical order, since the truck isn't assembling the orders itself, but rather just carting them around.
A video posted by Bloomberg Quicktake a few years ago shows the process in motion, and it does look pretty smooth, although many observers have said the same thing in a range of comment threads.
Principally, people just don't believe that this could work in every country in the world - and particularly not in the US. As one comment on a Reddit post said: "Someone would buy one order and take the whole contents when it opened. So dumb."
Many people seem to agree with that argument, and it's not a huge surprise given how often there are reports of orders being stolen from porches or other issues of the same sort.
In response to one post on X which asked how long the truck would survive in "cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, NYC, etc", another user said: "Might as well call it Kentucky Free Chicken if it was in those cities".
It's also prompted comparisons to honour systems in break rooms and shared fridges, although this overlooks the fact that you do have to buy something to open up the truck. It's a fairly safe assumption, too, that the truck is loaded up with both cameras and alarms to discourage potential food thieves.
Still, people will often go the extra mile for a shot at free food, so it's perhaps little wonder that this hasn't made the journey over to the US yet, despite being operational for a number of years elsewhere.