It’s a sign of the times, but an obtrusive one, some find.
Fast food restaurants are looking to expand the practice of scanning a car’s license plate as the vehicle passes through the drive-thru lane so that they can keep track of what their regular customers order. It’s an attempt to provide better and more prompt service, acknowledging that most people order the same thing every time they go to the same restaurant drive thru they go through. We’re all creatures of habit and they’re on to us. When their scanner picks up your license plate, they can begin processing the order so it’s ready when you are.
Police have been using license plate scanners for years, but this is the first times it’s been used in a consumer restaurant application, South Korea being one of the test markets.
Some consumers say they look forward to the convenience. If you have three kids in the car and they always order the same thing it can make a drive thru trip easier.
Others see it as one more invasion of privacy by Big Brother. While we can all assume each establishment is able to track the history of our purchases if made with the same card, this allows restaurants to scoop up cash users as well.