The more things change... Not all jobs threatened by automation are joyless and menial, but joyless, menial jobs are prime targets. Nobody goes to Wendy's for the ambience and the counter staff there are not generally improving the experience for anyone. The parking lot attendant is there primarily to keep people from fucking with stuff; you aren't helping him save his job because he's mostly a security guard. If he were a valet his job would be totally secure because there's a human interaction there; if Wendy's were Ruth's Chris they'd never be talking about automation. I love Kaitan sushi. It's not because I hate waitresses, it's because I don't want to interact with them every ten minutes to get new rolls and I don't know what I'll want to eat all at once. Put it on the belt and I'm still interacting with people, but it'll be the chef, not the server. I would totally go to a conveyor belt burger joint. Or a conveyor belt chicken joint. Or a conveyor belt tapas bar. I mean, if you look at it, "food trucks" are basically restaurants with the servers removed.
I'm actually quite fond of the remodeled look. More relevantly they don't add any value. The menu is tight enough that asside from interpreting badly thought out coupons their job is almost entirely mechanical. Replacing them involves, more or less, turning around the touchscreen, streamlining the interface (now with extra pictures) and adding a ticket printer. I know this works because I use such a system on a regular basis at a convenience store, of all places. A common complaint is that people take too long to order via touch screen but even at the busiest of times four touch screens could easily keep four food prep people busy without a line. Not for the touchscreens anyway, there was a line waiting for food. Nobody goes to Wendy's for the ambience
and the counter staff there are not generally improving the experience for anyone.