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http://consumerist.com/5331607/new-futu ... ntion-ever

Coke is testing a new fountain drink machine that contains such advanced science, we believe that they are in league with Marty McFly. Inside, we have two videos of this miraculous machine in action.

First, we have a Coke employee demonstrating the machine, which offers over 100 different Coke products in the same space as a regular fountain drink machine. Crazy. This machine is so advanced, if it had a \"suicide\" option, it would probably actually kill you.

The machines are being tested in two Atlanta restaurants and 10 Jack-In-the Box locations according to the San Diego News Network. The second video, by mikeeey, seems to have been filmed by some consumers who encountered the machine in the wild.

They are extremely pleased.

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I don't even drink much soda and I would kill to have one of these near my house.

I would kill to have one of those too!!!

Those kids look sound so amazed.

I think this is pretty neat. If it's the only legitimate way to still get vanilla coke, I'll move to within walking distance of one of these machines.

Dear God...

The mixing possibilities with that would be limitless. Every single flavor of Fanta all in one. :bush:

I still see a number of problems. One that the resturaunt will still need to be supplied (and purchace - however that works) all those syrups.

I think the interface is a bit slow overall. You get a line queued up at the 1 machine (because they have to be expensive) and it's just not very fast. When I go to a fast food place now they have 2 despensers for the lobby. Between that, you probably have 3 - 4 basic 'coke' fillers and even at a slightly busy time of the day, you have people waiting behind you.

Now with all those choices brings a drag to decision and play time. Just like these 3 guys were standing there playing with the machine, imagine the kids playing with it just to see what their choices are. Again, this leads to longer lines.

It's neat, but it's not very practical.

I agree with elph, the slow interface is going to be problematic, to say the least. Why on earth do kiosks always have such slow interfaces?

NO NEW COKE!

Fuck you Coca Cola!

How about Old Coke? As in pre 1929.

figmentPez said:

I agree with elph, the slow interface is going to be problematic, to say the least. Why on earth do kiosks always have such slow interfaces?

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My best guess would be underpowered processors, in order to keep costs down.

I love how they furiously press on the buttons than impatiently wait for the slow CPU to process their retardation.

I wonder how much that screen needs cleaned with all the greasy fingers pawing at it all day.

What if it runs out of carbonation?

I still think it's a great idea.

Y'know, in terms of sales and marketing, the first video is an epic failure of epic proportions. There's nothing worse than hearing corporate droning like that.

The second video they should just make their new machine advertising campaign. Actual, real excitement over something that is pretty damn cool.

I would expect to see tons of grayed out options. Cool idea, expensive and slow implementation.

I think it's great! Look at it this way: They have a shitload of flavors that are not readily accessible and most people haven't tried. Now with this kiosk people will expand their drinking tastes and possibly buy a new drink. I mean, how many of you have tried the many flavors of Fanta? I never have. But I'd try it if I had one of these machines nearby. GREAT sales for Coke. Hats off to them.

Maybe Dave. Maybe.
See if this is at a gas station or Mickey D's the people who own it have to pay for all those syrups and stuff, NOT Coke. I really think the dude who runs the Super America isn't going to pay for the multitude of flavors, instead you will have 5 that actually work and the rest grayed out.

Edrondol said:

I think it's great! Look at it this way: They have a shitload of flavors that are not readily accessible and most people haven't tried. Now with this kiosk people will expand their drinking tastes and possibly buy a new drink. I mean, how many of you have tried the many flavors of Fanta? I never have. But I'd try it if I had one of these machines nearby. GREAT sales for Coke. Hats off to them.

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The downside to that thought though is that the store has to have those syrups on hand. Doesn't that mean some form of payment on their part? Why would a fast food store buy flavors that the syrup isn't even used for months (taking up space and collecting dust).

Also keep in mind that anything that the resturant offers inside, should also offer the drive thru. Take a look at current drive thru fountain despensers, they're like miniature assembly machines. More choices just means more time, which leads to more problems in a fast food market.

The best implimentation I can see for this, are gas stations and convience stores. Fountain drinks are fairly numerous there and the idea of a long line to get your food isn't so much of an issue. Now you have this huge Coke logo that can also give you any drink you want of the Coke line.

AshburnerX said:

figmentPez said:

I agree with elph, the slow interface is going to be problematic, to say the least. Why on earth do kiosks always have such slow interfaces?

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My best guess would be underpowered processors, in order to keep costs down.

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Yeah, but why do companies choose, year after year, to have such an awful user experience? Moore's Law is still holding, so we should be at a point where the cost of sufficient processing power should be insignificant compared to the cost of the materials, let alone all the other costs involved in a kiosk. If touch screen kiosks were fairly new it might be understandable, but they've been pretty common for a while now.

Adammon said:

The second video they should just make their new machine advertising campaign. Actual, real excitement over something that is pretty damn cool.

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Assuming it is actual excitement. Consider that the makers of the movie "I Love You Beth Cooper" paid a high school valedictorian to "reveal her crush" during her graduation speech. The second video could already be a viral advertising campaign.

Espy said:

I would expect to see tons of grayed out options. Cool idea, expensive and slow implementation.

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You're a real ray of sunshine today, Espy.

Espy said:

Maybe Dave. Maybe.
See if this is at a gas station or Mickey D's the people who own it have to pay for all those syrups and stuff, NOT Coke. I really think the dude who runs the Super America isn't going to pay for the multitude of flavors, instead you will have 5 that actually work and the rest grayed out.

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Not being able to hear the video, I haven't watched it, but I find it kind of hard to believe they would make that simple a mistake in the interface design. If they are designed right, you would only see the options for the syrups actually connected. What that would mean is that instead of stores and restaurants being limited to the number of nozzles they have, they could support as many or as few flavors as they wanted. That seems like a win to me.

I'm curious about the technical implementation of these machines. Obviously it's not premixed soft drink that is pumped through the machine, and I don't think it's the large canisters that you'd normally see. I wonder if it's a cartridge system similar to a printer. You have your array of cartridges for the 50-60 flavours, each cartridge around the size of a gatorade bottle, filled with extreme concentrations of syrup. When the user selects their pop type, the cartridge injects the syrup into the carbonated water stream and the user gets the pop of their choice.

As the cartridges empty, the choices inevitably get grayed out. If it was net.connected, it could JIT deliver new cartridges to the vendor for simple installation.

How nerdy am I that I want to know more about the technicalities of the system other than "OOH, POP!"

elph said:

The downside to that thought though is that the store has to have those syrups on hand. Doesn't that mean some form of payment on their part? Why would a fast food store buy flavors that the syrup isn't even used for months (taking up space and collecting dust).

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I'd be very surprised if it's not an on-the-fly mixing system for flavours. Sure there'll be more than merely "8" syrups (or whatever a standard one would have), but it'd be much MUCH less than the 100 (or however many flavours) that a machine would otherwise require.

Think of it this way, if they have cherry coke, cherry powerade, and cherry 7-up, why not just have one "cherry flavour" and mix it with all of the real "base" products? I wouldn't be surprised if the menu itself is a hint there: what if the "main" menu is what all of the bases are, and the sub-choices encompass most of the "enhancements". So if there were 20 bases, and 6-8 flavours, you still might need 28 things connected, but it's very shy of 100. And the flavours is probably used at a much smaller rate than the bases anyways, and thus are each less bulky than a "standard" syrup.

Just a theory, but hey, it fits.


And something tells me the 2nd video is an attempt at fake viral. Nobody's THAT excited about a pop machine, no matter how cool it would be.


(and damn you Adammon for beating me with your comment!)

Adammon & Eriol

You guys bring up very valid points that I didn't really think of. As for the 'amount of drink choices' thing, I was thinking more along the lines of when I worked in fast food (15 years or so ago) and we had the 'syrup bag in a box connected to hoses' method in the back.

If there are options for adding 'extras' (cherry to the coke to make cherry coke, etc..) then that would cut down on some of the amount of actual additional need of syurps. Also the idea of a extreme concentrated syrup would only help.

That still leaves it to the one downside that I see as the biggest. The human element. Giving that amount of choice to people leads to a delay and the machine itself looks to be a little slugish. It's only a matter of time before you're behind the kid that wants to mix all 32 flavors into 1 drink (something that's annoying enough with the 10 or so at a normal fountain line). Also the drive thru issue I previously mentioned.

Fun Size said:

Not being able to hear the video, I haven't watched it, but I find it kind of hard to believe they would make that simple a mistake in the interface design.

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Second video 30 sec.
One of the Coke options is grayed out.
And yes Tress, yes I freaking am. :tongue:

Espy said:

Fun Size said:

Not being able to hear the video, I haven't watched it, but I find it kind of hard to believe they would make that simple a mistake in the interface design.

Click to expand...

Second video 30 sec.
One of the Coke options is grayed out.
And yes Tress, yes I freaking am. :tongue:

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In that case, they fail simple interface design and deserve a kick in the junk.

The optimism of the posts so far warms me. Sadly I see this machine as little more than tricking people into believing that what they pay for is what they are getting. Or the Cola companies finally exploiting the fact that all fountain drinks taste eerily similar.

I'm always skeptical of fan videos that have that much enthusiam. It almost feels as if after the camera was turned off some Coke exec said "this is exactly how you kids will react" and pay each of them.

I think the machine should be a tube filled with coke products and you have to drop rocks into the tube to get your coke : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 753086.ece

HCGLNS said:

Or the Cola companies finally exploiting the fact that all fountain drinks taste eerily similar.

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You could not be more wrong. I can do a blind taste test and tell you exactly which soda I'm drinking, even if there are 100 options. So, you can see why I'm excited about this thing. Looks like fun.

Too bad you can't get something like this for your home. I love fountain drinks. It's just not the same from a can or bottle.

I couldn't tell if these machines will allow you to try regional flavors from around the US (there isn't raspberry Fanta near my home), or Coca-Cola products from around the world. Either one would be good.

klew said:

I couldn't tell if these machines will allow you to try regional flavors from around the US (there isn't raspberry Fanta near my home), or Coca-Cola products from around the world. Either one would be good.

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Many local Fanta's aren't available as syrups, so that'd somewhat problematic.

That said, I agree that the interface seems way too slow, and mean to make people dabble around for 10 minutes before getting their drink.
Also, in a regular fountain dispenser, two or three people can use it at the same time, from seperate nozzles. This one can't. So.....Eh.

It's a cool thingie, but I doubt if it'll revolutionize soda isntallations.

Im not impressed, because its not that futuristic. But I'm sure it'll be convenient.