Speaker 1: Rich tomrle Tech Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Rich is heard every Saturday eleven am to two pm
Speaker 2: right here and on KTLA every day, Instagram at rich
Speaker 2: on Tech website, rich on tech dot Tv.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Rich, Good morning to you, Bill. Quick question
Speaker 1: and this one.
Speaker 2: I find fascinating that Applebee's and I Hop are testing
Speaker 2: AI in their restaurants.
Speaker 1: So let me get this. I don't see how it connects.
Speaker 1: Do you go into.
Speaker 2: An I Hop and you say I'd like buttermilk pancakes
Speaker 2: and the AI says, no, you don't. You want chocolate
Speaker 2: chip pancakes this time around? Based on all of the
Speaker 2: information that's out there and how many times you've ordered pancakes.
Speaker 1: I don't quite understand how this connects.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, this is a trend that we're going to
Speaker 3: see at a lot of restaurants and in fact, a
Speaker 3: lot of businesses anywhere that they have data that they
Speaker 3: can use on their customers. And so Dine Brands, which
Speaker 3: is based in Pasadena, owns Applebee's and I Hop. Did
Speaker 3: you know that, by the way, they're the same company.
Speaker 1: No, did not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well there you go, now you know it. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: Applebee's and I Hop using this this AI technology and
Speaker 3: so I'm guessing since they deployed tablets at these restaurants
Speaker 3: a while back, well recently, that's how they're going to
Speaker 3: do this. So they're adding a loyalty you know, like
Speaker 3: a loyalty membership kind of service where you you know,
Speaker 3: same thing like a Ralph's like a card, So it'll
Speaker 3: know who you are, what you've ordered in the past,
Speaker 3: and it also knows what other people are ordering, So
Speaker 3: of course on a Saturday morning at nine am, it
Speaker 3: knows the popular breakfast meals that people are doing, and
Speaker 3: it can also upsell you. So it's going to be
Speaker 3: a personalized personalization engine that will recommend not only meals
Speaker 3: but also deals based on what you've ordered before. That
Speaker 3: makes a lot of sense. And then of course they're
Speaker 3: also going to use this to upsell folks. So if
Speaker 3: you order you know, the the like you said, the
Speaker 3: chocolate chip pancakes, they may say, well, last time you
Speaker 3: got bacon, want it you try sausage this time, you know,
Speaker 3: whatever it is. So it's all about using that data
Speaker 3: to not only make the process easier for the customer
Speaker 3: of what they want to reorder and things like that,
Speaker 3: but also get them to try new things, Try different things,
Speaker 3: try trending things, try things that are more expensive. And again,
Speaker 3: this is something we're seeing in the restaurant business in general.
Speaker 3: They're all embracing AI to you know, to get that
Speaker 3: bill higher.
Speaker 2: Is the world of waiters servers disappearing, where you order
Speaker 2: everything at the table and the only people there are
Speaker 2: the ones that are producing, are just moving the food
Speaker 2: to your table and don't get much money.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think we're definitely seeing a trend towards
Speaker 3: quick service. People like the idea of quick service because
Speaker 3: it's that restaurant that you order at the you know,
Speaker 3: at the menu, you order at the counter, and then
Speaker 3: someone brings it out to your table. Personally, I like
Speaker 3: that because the quality of those restaurants that used to
Speaker 3: be just fast food restaurants that would happen at Now
Speaker 3: I feel like the quality of the quick service restaurant
Speaker 3: has gotten higher, but the prices are not as expensive
Speaker 3: as say a full service restaurant like an Applebee's or
Speaker 3: an ihop, So I think customers like it. We also
Speaker 3: know that restaurants are looking for various ways to save money,
Speaker 3: and so I've been in restaurants where they have robots
Speaker 3: delivering the food. You know, they roll around, even at
Speaker 3: a CPK where you know they put the food on
Speaker 3: the robot, the robot comes to your table, You take
Speaker 3: the food off the robot, and then the robot collects
Speaker 3: the plates as well. So I mean we're seeing all
Speaker 3: kinds of new ways of embracing technology at restaurants. Of course,
Speaker 3: it's every tech company I talk to says, no, no,
Speaker 3: we're not out there to replace EMP. We're not out
Speaker 3: there to emplace replace human employees. But that sort of
Speaker 3: ends up happening.
Speaker 1: Of course. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean if you're at the table. One of the
Speaker 2: great things about and I do this at Chili's.
Speaker 1: Because you can order I believe it.
Speaker 2: Chili's off the computer, off that iPad thing, and that
Speaker 2: is you're not waiting for a so to come and
Speaker 2: take your order. I mean, it's done right there, and
Speaker 2: so it goes quicker. And then of course at the
Speaker 2: end it's as would you like to tip? Starting at
Speaker 2: twenty percent? Now, uh, twenty twenty five percent? How about
Speaker 2: thirty percent? How about eighty percent?
Speaker 1: Tip? What do you think? Bill?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look the tipping. We know the tipping
Speaker 3: thing has gotten out of control. I am I am
Speaker 3: a big proponent of tipping folks. I love tipping folks.
Speaker 3: I think that if someone is grabbing a muffin out
Speaker 3: of a you know, a glass area for me, and
Speaker 3: it takes them one second, and that's sort of like
Speaker 3: the job. You know, it doesn't feel right to tip
Speaker 3: thirty percent on that, But you know, at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, tipping is here to stay. Technology has
Speaker 3: definitely made it easier, and I think these might bill.
Speaker 3: My theory with the whole tipping situation is this, you know,
Speaker 3: all these all these tips come from those like the
Speaker 3: products like the automated tablet services like the square, the
Speaker 3: point of sale services. I think the reason they like
Speaker 3: the tip so much is because they make a bigger
Speaker 3: percentage of that sale. Like they take a little a
Speaker 3: little percentage of that. And I think the more you tip,
Speaker 3: the more that company, whatever, that company handling the transaction,
Speaker 3: they get more money on the back end. So I
Speaker 3: think that's why they push tips out so much. Maybe
Speaker 3: the people get it all, I'm not sure, but it
Speaker 3: sure seems like these automation companies are really pushing the
Speaker 3: tips because they make more based on that on the
Speaker 3: total sales.
Speaker 1: But that's just the theory I have.
Speaker 2: My idea is when I'm not particularly through the service,
Speaker 2: I still tip. But my tip is plant your corn
Speaker 2: in the spring and leave zero. That means there's my
Speaker 2: tip in the spring.
Speaker 3: Yeah, leave like a tip, like a tip for growing
Speaker 3: your own food.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah, I just leave a tip. Yeah, here
Speaker 1: you go, change your oil regularly that it works out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope you don't get that away. But that's at
Speaker 1: the end of the meal and not at the beginning,
Speaker 1: So don't spit in.
Speaker 2: The food rich Tesla now has the robotaxi service in Austin. Hey,
Speaker 2: have we hit critical mass yet or how close are
Speaker 2: we to hitting it?
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden it's hitting every city.
Speaker 3: I don't know if we've gotten there just yet, but
Speaker 3: I will tell you that there are a lot of
Speaker 3: robo taxi services that are coming online recently. We know
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles, Weimo is a big part of the
Speaker 3: landscape here. In fact, when tourists come to LA that's
Speaker 3: one of the things that they make sure they put
Speaker 3: on their list, take a ride in that. And they've
Speaker 3: launched in other cities as well, so you've got a
Speaker 3: bunch of cities across America that do have a similar service,
Speaker 3: but it's not a majority of the major cities just yet.
Speaker 3: I know weimo applied for a license in New York City,
Speaker 3: where you are not allowed to have self driving cars.
Speaker 3: But in Austin we've got the Tesla robo taxi. It's
Speaker 3: not exactly what was promised at the beginning. It's a
Speaker 3: very slow and small start. Ten to twenty cars operating
Speaker 3: invite only at this point. It runs daily from six
Speaker 3: am to midnight. It avoids all kinds of things highways, airports,
Speaker 3: bad weather, tough intersections. There's still a safety operator. The
Speaker 3: ride price is pretty good four dollars twenty cents. If
Speaker 3: you this is funny bill. If you tap the tip
Speaker 3: button in the car, like at the end of your ride,
Speaker 3: you get a little message that says just kidding. So
Speaker 3: I do like that sense of humor there.
Speaker 2: Hey you can't Is this gonna want let me put
Speaker 2: it the other way. Is this going to put uber
Speaker 2: lift out of business?
Speaker 3: Well, that's the interesting thing is that, you know, Uber
Speaker 3: so far has not talked about their own self driving ambitions.
Speaker 3: A couple of many many years ago, they had their
Speaker 3: own self driving car project. They ditched that and they
Speaker 3: said it was too expensive and unrealistic. And now all
Speaker 3: these other companies like away Mo, like a Zooke's, like
Speaker 3: a Tesla, they are coming up and doing their own
Speaker 3: self driving. So what's happened in a lot of these
Speaker 3: cities is that Uber is the app that lets you
Speaker 3: book the self driving. So I can't imagine that Uber
Speaker 3: is going to go out, but I do know that
Speaker 3: Uber has looked into the future and they know that
Speaker 3: a portion of rides, a percentage of rides will be
Speaker 3: replaced by these automated robotaxis. What percentage of that of
Speaker 3: those rides and how long it's going to take for
Speaker 3: that to become one hundred percent, we don't know just yet,
Speaker 3: but I can guarantee that Uber and Lyft do not
Speaker 3: want to go out of business because of robotaxis, So
Speaker 3: they will find a way to either acquire these companies,
Speaker 3: acquire the startups that are doing this, or somehow be
Speaker 3: the platform that lets you book these robotaxis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've never been in one Isuemo completely self driving
Speaker 2: as it as if well or as no driver is there.
Speaker 1: There's no steering wheel, for example.
Speaker 3: There is a steering wheel they're using they're using modified
Speaker 3: right now in LA, they're using modified Jaguars. And then
Speaker 3: they're also using this new car out of out of China.
Speaker 3: I believe it's called Zeker. And you know, so those
Speaker 3: are their two cars that they're using, and they are
Speaker 3: traditional cars. The Zeker is a little bit different looking.
Speaker 3: It looks more like a van, but you know, it's
Speaker 3: a traditional car with a steering wheel that moves. There's
Speaker 3: just no one in there except you, and so Bill,
Speaker 3: I would I would recommend.
Speaker 1: You try it.
Speaker 3: I mean, it is a little apprehensive at first because
Speaker 3: you're giving up full control and we know when you
Speaker 3: drive in LA there's a lot of wild stuff that happens.
Speaker 3: But you know, they have a decent track record. People
Speaker 3: seem to like it, and they do avoid certain things like,
Speaker 3: for instance, you can't go from the valley to the airport.
Speaker 3: I'm not even sure you can go to the airport
Speaker 3: at all in the Waimo right now. And so they
Speaker 3: do have these things locked in areas where they've identified
Speaker 3: that you know, they perform quite well in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I and I use lyft I do.
Speaker 2: And and in terms of apprehensive, boy, there's nothing more
Speaker 2: pleasant than talking to a lyft driver who got here
Speaker 2: yesterday from Pakistan.
Speaker 1: That's a thrill.
Speaker 3: And well sometimes those people are better drivers than people
Speaker 3: that are in LA for a long time. So I
Speaker 3: will tell me. The scariest thing I had happened to
Speaker 3: me Bill in an uber Okay, I take Uber and
Speaker 3: lift a lot. I was in an uber in another
Speaker 3: city and I asked the person driving. I said, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, what is this area we're in? This looks
Speaker 3: pretty nice and they go, oh, I don't know. I'm
Speaker 3: just driving for my brother. So they were using their
Speaker 3: brother's app in their car to drive. The person was
Speaker 3: in the hospital, the actual driver, and so I was like,
Speaker 3: wait a second, what And so one thing to do
Speaker 3: always check the license plate, but check the picture of
Speaker 3: the driver. Make sure it actually looks like that person.
Speaker 2: Yeah okay, and I've never had that issue, but okay,
Speaker 2: some good advice real quickly.
Speaker 1: Samsung Foldable as a new foldable.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed the foldables and they're so retro now
Speaker 2: of course, what's going on with that?
Speaker 3: I mean, Samsung's been doing these foldable smartphones for seven
Speaker 3: years now.
Speaker 1: Which is just wild.
Speaker 3: I mean it started sorry six years now, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: They started. This is going to be their seventh generation
Speaker 3: of foldable phones. They will be unveiled at an event
Speaker 3: in Brooklyn, New York on July ninth. We're going to
Speaker 3: get the Z Flip seven and the Z Fold seven slimmer,
Speaker 3: better cameras and bill. You know, one opens up like
Speaker 3: a book, the other sort of like a reporter's notebook.
Speaker 3: I guess one flips up, one flips open.
Speaker 1: All right, So we're not talking about the old phones.
Speaker 2: And when I think a foldable I think about the
Speaker 2: phones that you know, flip open and you it's top
Speaker 2: to bottom and they're.
Speaker 1: Small and you put them up to your ear, you know,
Speaker 1: the way those first phones don't even know what they're called. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Motorola, like the razor, Yeah, yeah, the original Motorola.
Speaker 3: Yeah. These they do have one model, the Flip seven
Speaker 3: is like that where it flips open like the old
Speaker 3: school flip phone, like you you know, you called a
Speaker 3: you know, like a clamshell phone. Yes, that's the small one,
Speaker 3: but it's not that you know, it doesn't have the
Speaker 3: dialer like you would imagine, you know, like that's the
Speaker 3: true old school flip phone. But those are making a
Speaker 3: comeback and for sure people do like those because you know,
Speaker 3: we're getting this overload with technology and people sort of
Speaker 3: like the idea of going back to the old school
Speaker 3: flip phone. So those are selling pretty well as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've ready to talked about retro. And I remember
Speaker 1: with the phones. I'm assuming you were around when it
Speaker 1: was a big block half the size of the phone book.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Tennis sticking out. No, that's great boy, you
Speaker 1: look at technology.
Speaker 2: All right, Rich, thank you, We will catch you this
Speaker 2: weekend and as always on KTLA, I have a good one.
Speaker 3: Thanks Bill.
Speaker 1: All right,