McDonald's acquires voice-recognition company to improve its drive-thru game

McDonald's announced it will McBuy the Bay Area voice-recognition startup Apprente for an undisclosed amount. According to McDonald's, Apprente's "sound-to-meaning" technology handles "complex, multilingual, multi-accent and multi-item conversational ordering," and believes the technology will help streamline the drive-thru process -- even faster food, you say?? As the earth turns and the centuries change, so does the way people wish to order a Big Mac, and Micky D's has the cash to listen. Back in March, the company bought Dynamic Yield, which customizes drive-thru menus based on factors like weather, time of day, and customer order profiles. A month later, it invested in New Zealand app-designer Plexure, which will help connect customers to its new smart drive-thrus, among other things.