May I Take Your Order: The Past, Present, and Future of Drive-Thrus

Restaurant drive-thrus are a quick and convenient place for customers to grab their favorite foods along their daily commutes. Pre-pandemic, 60-70 percent of a quick-service restaurant’s business came from the drive-thru. As restaurants innovate to create additional profit avenues, drive-thru experiences alleviate customer concerns about cleanliness and safety surrounding a dine-in experience. As off-premise dining has become an industry lifeline, drive-thrus provide a precious opportunity for revenue.  Before we look to the future, let’s look at the history of drive-thrus to determine where we’ve been and where we might go next. 

A Convenient Timeline

The earliest iteration of a drive-thru would be the drive-in movie theater or the establishments that provided curbside service in a  designated area. In 1921, the Pig Stand, a chain of restaurants based in Texas, opened their first drive-in on a highway that connected Fort Worth. Similar to Sonic’s business model, customers pulled into Pig Stand’s parking lot and were greeted by carhops for their orders. Guests received their orders on trays clipped to their car windows. 

The drive-thru experience, as we’re familiar with it today, began in 1948 with In-N-Out Burger. At its Baldwin California location, a circular driveway led up to glass walls behind which five cooks prepared meals for passing drivers. Signage reading “No Delay” displayed on the glass walls to draw in motorists. In-N-Out’s combination of the intercom ordering system, lack of interior seating, and exterior parking marked the first restaurant to offer the total drive-thru experience. 

Though this was the case with In-N-Out, larger chains, including McDonald’s, were slow to adopt the drive-thru business model. Smaller chains, like Wendy’s and Jack-in-the-Box, jumped on the drive-thru chain in the mid-1960s. McDonald’s later followed suit, opening its first drive-thru in the mid-1970s. 

Let’s Get Into Drive-Thru Data

If we’ve learned anything since 2020, it’s that the restaurant industry is constantly changing, especially when it comes to quick service restaurants. Drive-thru sales continue to rise, and beyond that, restaurants are learning that the majority of consumers prefer alternative ordering methods (such as in-vehicle ordering,) in lieu of the traditional dine-in experience. In fact, casual dining real estate continues to decline; with property sale success rates dropping to just 37% in 2024, according to data from commercial real estate firm Northmarq. This decline is primarily driven by fundamental mismatches between available properties and the changing needs of restaurants, which make it increasingly challenging to repurpose former casual dining locations. Rising labor costs, the growth of fast casual dining, and the lasting impact of COVID-19 all are key players in the decline. What does this mean for drive-thrus? They’re about to be more in demand than ever.

You might think that speed is king in a drive-thru, and while that remains somewhat true, consumers in 2025 are looking for a balance of:

• Speed
• Accuracy
• Hospitality
• Technology

Moreover, brands are reinvesting in training and experience. Burger King’s “You Rule” campaign reflects this trend.

Great Drive-Thru Examples

According to the 2025 QSR Drive-Thru study, based on accuracy, service, and taste, several brands stand out: 

• Chick-fil-A — The company continues to lead in the drive-thru category, implementing new four-lane prototype stores in Georgia that doubled throughput.
• Taco Bell — For the fourth consecutive year, Taco Bell reigns supreme (no pun intended,) in drive-thru speed.
• Bojangles — The AI drive thru solution, Bo-Linda, had a 97% non-intervention success rate.

The Future of Drive-Thrus

The future of drive-thru technology is being redefined by innovation, personalization, and the evolving expectations of modern diners. While speed was once the sole priority, today’s quick-service restaurants (QSRs) are focusing on a more holistic guest experience—one that blends efficiency with accuracy, hospitality, and smart technology.

These innovations aren’t just about novelty—they’re grounded in results. According to the 2024 QSR® Drive-Thru Report:

• Friendly service improves overall satisfaction by 78%.

• Order accuracy increases by 18% when service is friendly.

• Brands with clear and understandable speaker interactions reduce total service time by 28 seconds.

Looking ahead, drive-thru operations will continue to integrate AI, automation, and real-time data to optimize both the guest and employee experience. Tools like geofencing, mobile pickup lanes, and AI-enhanced kitchen display systems are reshaping how restaurants manage flow and meet demand.

Conclusion

The drive-thru isn’t just surviving in a post-pandemic world—it’s thriving. As technology advances and customer expectations shift, restaurants that embrace innovation while preserving the human touch will be the ones to lead the next era of off-premise dining. The future of drive-thrus is faster, smarter, and more guest-centric than ever before.

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About the Author

Caitlin Soard is a Content Marketing Strategist with nearly a decade of marketing experience under her belt. She joined the QSR Automations marketing team in June of 2022 and has been hard at work improving their social media and content ever since. She attended Franklin College where she received a Bachelor of Arts, focusing in Journalism and Public Relations as well as minoring in English. When she’s not lending her social media wizardry to QSR Automations, you can find her playing Dungeons & Dragons or TCGs at her local card shop, enjoying live music, or spending time with her cat and two dogs, Ellie, Laney, and Orryn.