Featured Image Credit: NUTAN / Contributor via Getty
The $1,000,000,000 Coca Cola machine that turns every user into a human experiment has fascinated the internet.
You've probably seen it at your local cinema or fast food restaurant: the sleek, futuristic-looking red machine standing in the corner that promises endless beverage possibilities.
The Coca-Cola Freestyle machine is just one in a billion-dollar network of machines that represent one of the most ambitious consumer data-collection experiments in modern history.
Since store shelves at the time offered only a handful of beverage options, Coca-Cola developed the Freestyle concept to offer over 100 flavour combinations from a single machine. This is why you've probably been overwhelmed with the flavours on the screen, not to mention the crazier flavours like Sprite Cherry and Coca-Cola Orange Vanilla.
Advert
The machine's concept was to allow users to choose or combine countless soda flavours in one machine.
According to the Coca-Cola Freestyle website: "With the world of Coca-Cola at your fingertips, Coca-Cola Freestyle gives you the freedom to explore, pour, and enjoy your perfect drinks."
The Freestyle machine uses 30 different cartridges in one unit, combining carbonated water with syrup cartridges to ensure 'every pour is perfectly measured drop by drop, turning your drink into a precise masterpiece.'
But there's a darker side to these sweet soda pop machines.
YouTuber fern explored the marketing behind the machine and how it turns every user into a giant human experiment.
Through a concept called experience Marketing, Coca-Cola can analyse its customers and report on their data from behind the screen. Every machine is directly linked to SAP software, which serves as the 'company brain.' It monitors what's happening in each Coca-Cola operation simultaneously.
Over 50,000 machines report daily on which drinks are consumed at what times and how much syrup remains of each flavour.
The software allows inventory data to be sent back to the company, making the restocking process smooth and streamlined and saving the company millions of dollars along the way.
People experimenting with flavours is exactly why unusual combinations like Coca-Cola Orange Vanilla, Sprite Cherry, Sprite Strawberry, and Coca-Cola Cherry Vanilla became official flavours - all created from user choices or unique combinations.
Perhaps the most concerning part about the machine, though, is the cameras installed at the top for facial recognition.
fern stated, as per AI company Quantiphi: "Each vending machine comes with a camera installed, in which an image is captured for every customer interacting with the machine."
All in all, the Coca-Cola company is saving around $160 million a year with the new technology.
"It's safe to assume the billion dollars reportedly invested into these machines has long been made back," fern concluded.
The 'red, chrome and sculpted lines' that look remarkably similar to a Ferrari are also no coincidence either. According to the YouTuber, the machine was designed by Pininfarina, the designer behind Ferrari.
Viewers quickly took to the comments section, with reactions split between shock over the apparent 'data mining' and understanding that this is simply the reality of modern technology.
"Cant even drink without being tracked," one user commented.
"Even the soda fountain is collecting my data?? BRUH," another exclaimed.
"None of this is blowing my mind. This sort of data mining and real time inventory monitoring has been going on for years now," another wrote.
