Amazon Go

gord

gord

gord

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I couldn't see a thread on this already but this has just come up for discussion at work and I have issues with it. For those not in the know, Amazon have made a grocery shop without checkouts, you just walk out with your shopping.


Now, I noticed a distinct lack of children in their store. Kids like to pick up everything and move it about. How are they going to handle that?

Also, what if your phone dies? You can't go shopping? What if it dies in store? Does the security team descend on you?
 
It's the first of it's kind, there will be things that will get ironed out over the years until it's near as damn it flawless.

Quite exciting if you ask me.
 
it's a very cool idea, the fact that its continuously monitoring everything in the store by computer vision is the interesting part, essentially means its very easy (if labour intensive) to go back and learn from the old 'tapes' - I imagine the amount they'll learn from it will far outweigh any losses from miss recognition etc.

Tried to pitch something very similar to this to the major supermarket some years ago where you'd self scan with your phone and then just walk out. They were having none of it, far too high a risk in their minds.
 
Awesome, bout bloody time.


Also on a slightly related note, my wife works for one of the most (if not the most) famous department stores in the world and has told me that their CCTV system is so advanced it picks up people with odd body language and highlights them to security. So far it's had a 90% success rate, and one of the failures was when a lady was having an epileptic fit in the store!
 
Another Amazon business? No thanks, I'll be giving this place a miss. Amazon still cannot even get next day delivery right so I do not have much hope for their latest venture.
 
gord said:
Now, I noticed a distinct lack of children in their store. Kids like to pick up everything and move it about. How are they going to handle that?

Also, what if your phone dies? You can't go shopping? What if it dies in store? Does the security team descend on you?
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facial recognition could easily solve that issue.
it says that you can put stuff back. So it would know that a kid simply moved something.
they'll iron out these things.
 
Retikulan said:
Another Amazon business? No thanks, I'll be giving this place a miss. Amazon still cannot even get next day delivery right so I do not have much hope for their latest venture.
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Amazon do get it right 98% of the time.

At the end of the day its human error on the delivery stretch
 
AI, Amazon Implant coming up next. You won't need a phone or to be logged in to shop and they'll even drop your shopping in to your bag....
 
I think it's pretty exciting. Makes me wonder what our supermarkets are making of it. Whether they're now looking into the technology themselves, or sitting back and waiting to see if Amazon are able to make a success of it.
Haven't heard anything of it coming to the UK, but if it's a success in the US I should imagine we could see it over here.
 
Nice idea, but cringe worthy advert.

"How many tech buzzwords can we cram in without actually explaining anything about how it works?".
 
gord said:
Now, I noticed a distinct lack of children in their store. Kids like to pick up everything and move it about. How are they going to handle that?
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By parents taking responsibility for their kid? It's not for them to "police" someone's kid.
 
This is one of the best bits of tech I've seen.

Although it is an introduction to more low skilled job losses.
 
Siliconslave said:
Tried to pitch something very similar to this to the major supermarket some years ago where you'd self scan with your phone and then just walk out. They were having none of it, far too high a risk in their minds.
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Some chains trialed that idea themselves over a decade ago and went for self service tills instead.
 
Looks pretty cool, One of my annoyances is waiting in queues to pay for a few items, And them self checkouts always fail and you are stood there waiting a life time for someone to come and clear it for you.
 
Etheco said:
Looks pretty cool, One of my annoyances is waiting in queues to pay for a few items, And them self checkouts always fail and you are stood there waiting a life time for someone to come and clear it for you.
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In my experience it is the user who fails at the self service, not the till itself... ;)

And yeah, talking from personal experience! :D
 
It does have a side effect that every customer is going to be ID'd walking into the store - the effect on the local scumbag population could be interesting if adopted by more stores. Currently there exist people who get caught multiple times stealing from the same stores until they become well known by staff and banned, with this tech they could simply be banned from an entire chain after the first couple of offenses.

Will chavs therefore find themselves only able to shop at Abu's Kwik-E-Mart?

Could easily exclude other 'undesirables' - 'travelers' who don't have a fixed address/don't pay tax etc.. often don't have credit cards/bank accounts either. Illegal immigrants could have some issues too.
 
amigafan2003 said:
Bring it on.

I ******* hate interacting with people.
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I want to invite you to go shopping at Lidl Streatham on a Saturday.



How there hasn't been a US style massacre there is beyond me. I've actually had to walk out at one point for fear of wrapping a shopping trolley around someone's neck.
 
Like driverless cars, will never work here I'm afraid. It's all very well having it in gentrified parts of US cities like Seattle, but in the UK the scrotes will be having a field day, it'll be 2011 all over again.
 
scorza said:
Like driverless cars, will never work here I'm afraid. It's all very well having it in gentrified parts of US cities like Seattle, but in the UK the scrotes will be having a field day, it'll be 2011 all over again.
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I remember people saying similar things about self checkouts - and look how many of those exist now.

Besides - you need to identify yourself to enter an Amazon Go store. So the security level is kind of higher than a regular store when you can enter anonymously.
 
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