QSR October 2022

DRIVE - THRU

As you might imagine, Grams, who has been with the brand for three decades, sees a lot of prototypes show up on his desk. Taco Bell’s “Go Mobile” was unveiled in August 2020 as a smaller (1,325 square feet versus the typical 2,500 ) model with a dual drive-thru, smart kitchen technology, “bellhop” in-line order takers, curbside, and, overall, a synchronized digital expe rience centered around streamlining points. Defy fits into that envisioned universe, but amplified.

Yet this was a different arena. With fast food and drive-thru, brands are searching for outlets to incorporate digital into the business. And to do so beyond just ordering; it’s as much a bat tleground of integration as one to provide convenience. Defy is, at its core, contactless drive-thru at its apex. The Washington Post described it as the “MP3 that out-convenienced the CD, which had out-convenienced the cassette.” With the three digital lanes, guests pull up to an arrival mon

itor (think of a kiosk in a stanchion) , with a contemporary look. The monitor scans the QR code generated after a customer’s order and the screen confirms before asking you to drive forward. There’s live, graphic motions that show a car progressing. The guest goes about 10 feet and the lift levels down. It was designed to drop to differ ent heights based on car size. This way, consumers aren’t reaching up or down, or having to open the door or get out and grab their food. When it stops, the door opens and there’s a light curtain for safety protocols in case somebody has multiple items. It’s activated by a guest reaching in. What the whole process creates is an experience people watch, but choose how

What’s also unique about Defy, especially in a COVID era where “restaurant of the future” prototypes raced across the table like ants, is that the finished product actually looks like the ren dering. Even better, Grams says. “When you go

■ DEFY’S AIM IS TO GET CUSTOMERS THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE IN UNDER 2 MINUTES.

there and see the lanes full of cars, everybody with their cam eras out taking pictures of the experience, you really get that you might be on to something here,” he says. “There’s a lot to learn for us to carry forward.” Barring a pandemic, Grams says, he would have greeted the idea with trepidation. “I would have said, ‘I’ve seen these pictures before. Somewhere in the world, in Australia, they’re going to try to do one,” he says.

TACO BELL (3)

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OCTOBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com