Six Technologies Changing North America's Quick Cup of Coffee

"Not since the computerized point-of-sale system started replacing the cash register in the 1970s we are seeing such changes in how orders are taken, processed and served," said Che Baird, who's been in the quick service restaurant business for nearly two decades and is Panasonic Canada's National Business Development Manager - QSR/Retail. Mr. Baird says ideas hatched in entrepreneurial incubators and corporate R&D labs are shaping eateries in Toronto, San Jose and NYC. Panasonic, which began working with major restaurant operators back in 1978, today counts Tim Hortons, Dairy Queen, McDonald's and others as customers because it delivers the innovations that the quick service restaurant industry wants.

1. Customer choice

2. My car is my castle

In the book "Ten Restaurants that Changed America," author Paul Freedman credits the bright orange roofs of Howard Johnson's, a U.S. chain founded in 1925, for popularizing highway dining with a distinctive architectural feature built to snag motorists' attention. Almost a century later, car-bound customers are critical to major restaurant operators. Some 53 percent of fast food sales in the U.S. went through the drive-thru in 2015, according to Euromonitor International. Consumers want speed and accuracy. One thing that helps customers move fast is a high-resolution digital menu board that can easily be seen in bright sun or darkness. "Vivid images placed in the center of the screen help people decide and place orders more quickly," said Mr. Baird. While customers want fast service, they don't want to sacrifice order accuracy. When customers receive incorrect orders their likelihood of returning decreases. Panasonic helps QSRs improve performance, clarity and efficiency with its drive-thru communication system, Attune II, which offers sound quality to reduce order errors, eliminate the need to reconfirm an order and enable restaurants to serve more satisfied customers daily, boosting sales. And the science of the drive-thru continues to evolve. What may be coming soon? Customer-facing cameras and AI software that recognizes and recalls license plates or faces. One possible result: the system remembers your previous order, and asks if you'd like it again.

3. Loving line-busters

4. Can I get a Brownie Batter Donut with that coffee?

5. Forecasting your café con leche, before you order

Restaurant organizations use a secret sauce to guide data collection and analysis to make sure patrons receive what they want, when they want it. Clearview by Panasonic is a highly flexible and scalable web-based solution for financial management, food cost management, and labor management. It collects data on everything from scheduling to food orders, which is mixed with information from consumer search activity (such as when you use your handheld to find the closest coffee shop), and sometimes even social data. To that combination, operators add a pinch of AI to figure out how much milk, coffee and sugar to order so there's enough ingredients to give you a cup of coffee, even if you pull up behind three buses carrying the college baseball team.

6. A peak at the-not-so distant future of fast coffee

Imagine. A hankering for a cappuccino hits you as you sit in traffic in a strange city. You click your coffee app, find the closest location, make your order, pay for it, and let the system's artificial intelligence estimate your ETA. Ten minutes later, you steer to the curbside pickup, and a hospitality robot hands you your steaming beverage. You're about to leave when you notice a beautifully designed digital experience playing on a high-resolution videoboard by your pickup spot. It highlights the sustainable sourcing of a hand-crafted sunflower roll, prepared with organic grains, and adapted from a traditional farmhouse recipe. You place a new order. Although HOSPI, Panasonic's hospitality robot, hasn't yet served coffee, it is now honing its skills helping guests at a hotel and airport in Japan. Watch a demo on HOSPI.