Robot drive-thru attendant taking customer order at Panera

A Panera customer went viral on TikTok after recording a robotic drive-thru employee taking his order.

TikTok user Gio (@gioxbattaglia) posted a video of his exchange with the robot drive-thru employee on Dec. 29. As of January 5, the video has been viewed 1.4 million times.

“Welcome to the Webster Panera. my name is tori Are you a rewards member?” asked the robot.

Gio provided the phone number associated with his rewards account and then placed his order. After each item, the robot noted, “This comes with a free baguette,” and asked if Gio would like to add a drink.

When Gio finished ordering, the robot repeated his order and asked if it sounded right. He replied, “Yes,” and the robot said, “Thank you.” The entire process took about one minute and nine seconds, the length of the video.

@gioxbattaglia What do you think of the new system? #panerabread #food #fyp #tech #foryou ♬ Original sound – gio

The video drew mixed reactions in the comments. Several viewers joked about how “hype” the robot seemed to be for the free baguettes, but others seemed skeptical that a robot would take drive-through orders.

“This is crazy,” commented one viewer.

“Yeah no. that’s scary lol,” wrote another.

Many viewers noticed that the robot companion spoke too slowly, which frustrated them.

“It’s sooo slow,” commented one user.

“I can’t believe how slow it is omg,” agreed a second.

Others speculated that robot attendants will replace human cashiers. Some even said Panera is implementing robots so the company doesn’t have to pay people.

“Damn I’m a drive-thru cashier at Panera, she’s snapping my job,” shared one viewer.

“What companies will do to stop paying employees,” wrote a second viewer.

“Hellscape of capitalism,” commented a third.

The Daily Dot contacted Gio via a TikTok comment and Panera via the media submission form on their website.

We crawl the web so you don’t have to.

Sign up for the Daily Dot newsletter to get the best and worst of the web delivered to your inbox every day.