> By tech fantasy are we talking about the kiosks which are already providing a value-add to customers?

No, we're talking about the making and packaging diverse types of food to order. That's why people go to McDonalds, and it's something that's surprisingly difficult to automate. McDonalds workers will be able to strike effectively as long as that's true.

Also, I don't consider ordering kiosks a value add for a customer. I've used them, they've been little to no benefit over ordering in person. It's just futzing around with yet another flaky touch screen, and who knows if the last person who used it had a cold or something. Their handling of process exceptions is like Google's customer support: non-existant. They're just a cost saving measure for business owners. It's not about "providing a value-add to customers" at all.

Remote ordering is a small value add, since it does permit some level of customer multi-tasking.

I tried that kiosk once (I don't often go to McDonald's) and was surprised to find that you could not order by number/meal. It took me 10 minutes to figure out how to order what we wanted and then at the end there were no "buzzers" in the bin and I had to re-order at the counter!