The future of McDonald's is here, and it's filled with robots

We always knew one day the machines would replace us... hell, it's already happened at some Thai sushi spots. And now the androids have scored an even bigger win with these self-checkout registers at one especially tech-savvy McDonald's in Romeoville, Illinois.

The machines were spotted by Redditor snailmail007 and explained by an in-the-know commenter. According to our expert, this particular McDonald's is right next to the company's Innovation Center, so all of their latest technology gets tested first at the Romeoville location. Only this isn't your usual three-month test before a national launch. The stuff there goes through years of trials before it expands anywhere else, whether it's new deep fryers or hunger-inducing fragrances (which allegedly exist). That means these checkout machines are probably still a few years away, but don't worry: robots will be asking if you want fries with that soon enough.

Kristin Hunt is a food/drink staff writer for Thrillist, and is already having "place burger in bagging area" stress dreams. Follow her at @kristin_hunt.