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Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

businessinsider.com

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Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#111

Post by icebraining »

PeachPlum wrote: post #26
timthelion wrote: post #17

It seems interesting to me, that computers seem to be taking on managerial roles and humans are left with manual labor. The robot knows how to tell a human to fix a problem but doesn't know how to restock the shelves itself. Similarly, in warehouses, computers tell humans what to do, and the human's job is basically just to grab things. In the end, the robot is already higher on the ladder than the humans.

Managers make decisions when the information is equivocal. That is very hard to replace. Resource allocation and unequivocal decisions are for the machines to help us with. If, as a manager, you do more of the latter: be afraid

Still, if you eliminate the easy stuff, you might get away with one manager for a whole region.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#112

Post by foota »

jdietrich wrote: post #95
JSONwebtoken wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the foreseable future, robots and chatbots will be poorer UX than speaking to a human. Since it's not adding value to their product it's obviously being done for cost cutting and scale reasons.

I rarely get useful assistance in large chain stores. Asking "where is the pesto?" usually gets an answer like "I dunno, somewhere in aisle 7 maybe" with an indifferent shrug. I'd happily make three attempts at using a clunky voice interface if I got the answer "Aisle 7, bay 11, shelves 3 and 4. We have 18 different kinds of pesto currently in stock. Would you like me to take you there?" It almost seems too obvious t…

An aisle number is all I'm really looking for when I ask imo. I can scan a shelf about as fast as I can walk.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#114

Post by timthelion »

castle-bravo wrote: post #67
timthelion wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If, as a manager, you do more of the latter: be afraid As a gardener, I have never feared a robot that could pull weeds. As a home-maker I have never feared a robot that could wash dishes. As an inventor, I have never feared a robot that could draft diagrams. And yet those people who are at the mercy of the market fear, and this is why, I believe that capitalism is headed for either disaster or elimination. Capital…

... because only capitalism has made post-scarcity possible.

The monarchies of the late 19th century were technologically advanced, but that did not stop Europe from adopting democracy in the 20th century.

The monastic system was the main scientific institution for over a milenia, both in Europe and China. Only an ignorant person argue that this system developed no new technologies.

You say "only capitalism", but what are you comparing capitalism to? In the past 200 years, capitalism has been the only economic institution in the world, how do you know that other institutions would have been incapable of technological advancement?

If your point is to compare capitalism to state socialism, then you would be far off the mark. The USSR was extremely technologically advanced. The hunger was due to other problems, mostly having to do with Stalin intentionally creating famines in order to weaken insurgency.

"Is has been proposed that the Soviet leadership used the man-made famine to attack Ukrainian nationalism, and thus the man-made famine may fall under the legal definition of genocide.[57][58][54][59][28][60] " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor#Causes

I am not promoting state socialism though. I would like a future in which each person/family unit/group of friends owned a small amount of land, and robots that would help them. Quite the opposite of state socialism. In state socialism, wealth is concentrated in the hands of the government. State socialism is basically monopolistic capitalism, and I believe that the two systems share many problems.

I want the distribution of wealth, not its concentration.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#115

Post by timthelion »

ronilan wrote: post #59
timthelion wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Uber tells the drivers where to go.

Near my house, 4 red octagons with a simple white drawing command humans to stop and cooperate.

I don't understand what you mean.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#116

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

maxerickson wrote: post #68
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you feel a tinge of guilt when you walk in one day and now there's only two tellers instead of three? Maybe I'm just weird but I was at target yesterday and there were only three aisles open with lots of people going to self checkout. I said fuck it and waited in line for a person.

Do you go down this rabbit hole? How do you pick between buying wheat and taking it to the miller (preserving his job) and buying flour from the grocer? Do you seek out gas stations that still pump gas for you? Do you worry that buying a fuel efficient vehicle or insulated building can have a negative impact on people working for energy producers?

>Do you go down this rabbit hole?

What requires me to go all the way down the rabbit hole? Everybody has moral beliefs that they don't follow to their extremist conclusions. I see people getting laid off or turnover being allowed to happen - I see that the replacement job for a cashier gig is sometimes even worse - I do my little part to make society a little less bad. I also don't feel that pure individualism is really the way to live so I do sacrifice a bit of a wait in line and hopefully it helps the girl that checked me out keep that gig for a little bit longer.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#117

Post by tradersam »

kondro wrote: post #109
tradersam wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the fact that Walmart's last FY earnings were something to the tune of $124.62B,[1] regardless of technical debt or other factors I don't think spending less than 1% of that to do a (probably) much needed upgrade is a hard sell to anyone rational. [1]: https://amigobulls.com/stocks/WMT/income-statement/annual

Gross profit is not net profit.

You're right, my bad-I updated the comment. Still, even with their net income being $13.64B for the year, it doesn't seem like much of an issue, especially if rolled out over a multi-year period.

Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores

#119

Post by SamuelAdams »

rconti wrote: post #91
criddell wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Austin, TX and I can buy booze in self-checkout, as long as it isn't Sunday morning.

Do they scan your ID? If not, I'm surprised someone hasn't come knocking about this...

Sadly, it's not that simple. Facial verification has come a long way, but it's not accurate enough. You need a person to verify the person's ID matches the face of the customer that is buying it - otherwise some teenager can swipe his Dad's ID and buy alcohol.

Plus you need someone to verify the customer is not already drunk - selling to someone who is already visibily intoxicated is a great way to a lawsuit.

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