Friday, 20 March 2026

Press 2 for Spanish, Get English With a Spanish Accent: Washington State DMV AI Says "Tres Minutes"

Weirdness Level8/10

🌀 Absolutely Bonkers

Press 2 for Spanish, Get English With a Spanish Accent: Washington State DMV AI Says "Tres Minutes"

“Washington State's Department of Licensing deployed an AI phone system that, when callers pressed 2 for Spanish, responded in English — but with a heavy Spanish accent and the occasional Spanish number thrown in for flavor. The DOL claimed it fixed the glitch, but journalists kept calling back and the robot kept saying "tres minutes."”

👽

Why It's Weird

Some stories exist in a category all their own, defying easy explanation or categorization. While the weirdness score is more modest, the story still offers a fascinating glimpse into life's unexpected moments.

You won't believe what one resident discovered when her husband pressed "2" for Spanish on the Washington State's Department of Licensing hotline. Both the TikTok video that captured audio of these shenanigans and the ensuing comments had me DYING!!

On February 18th, TikTok user Maya_Maybee posted a video where she related a hilarious incident about her husband's call to DOL's customer service line. His estimated wait time in English was going to be really long, so he pressed "2", thinking it to faster service. (He is bilingual and speaks both English and Spanish.)

The voice that answered on the other end of the call was an obvious AI voice, and it also had a thick, fake "Spanish" accent.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the AI voice then went on to drop a little Spanglish, which is something I used to do back in the day when I had casual conversations with my friends who spoke Spanish as their first language.

Read More: Few People Ever Get to See This 'Secret' Yakima Temple Tour

Another TikTok video that was posted by 8 KGW News in Portland showed that the Spanish customer service line also told customers, "Your estimated wait time is less than TRES minutes."

What a hilarious fail but this actually tracks for Washington, ha! And some of the comments on Maya's post left me in tears! 

How does this make you feel?

Read original on KFFM
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