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“Just walk out” technology by Amazon

justwalkout.com

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Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#751

Post by zepto »

airstrike wrote: post #713
mkolodny wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they don't want to draw attention to how many people are going to lose their jobs because of this yet. Cashier is the #2 job in the US (by number of people employed) [0]. If they released this at Whole Foods, I'd guess they'd fire all the cashiers there. That would make this rollout a lot less exciting for a lot of people. I hope Amazon comes up with an awesome way to help the cashiers this technology replaces.…

> I hope Amazon comes up with an awesome way to help the cashiers this technology replaces. I'm not sure why this should be on Amazon. It's on all of us to better train people to have the jobs of the future. Our education system hasn't really changed in 100+ years. It needs to.

Is it on all of us? Why should Amazon reap the benefit of this innovation while the rest of us pay for the consquences?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#752

Post by anoncareer0212 »

drdec wrote: post #726
0xffff2 wrote: post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So if you close your eyes and visualize a grocery store experience where you put stuff directly into your tote bags or your backpack and walk right out, with 0 time spent on anything after you have everything you need, this doesn't seem like something completely beyond self-checkout to you? Not at all. It seems like a tiny, infinitesimal even, improvement over self checkout. Waiting in line is annoying, spending a m…

Now imagine you are shopping for a family of six for an entire month and you have two carts bursting with groceries. Still think it's only a tiny improvement?

No, I think it's a nightmare, because these stores are ridiculously small and don't have multiple carts and a parking lot. They're concept stores in urban areas that they can't monetize effectively

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#753

Post by hansdieter1337 »

Yay more mass surveillance. Interesting how they avoid to mention anything regarding cameras and face recognition on this website. Not sure if that’s even legal.

If shops adapt this, Amazon will have your name, address (credit card), a video of you and whoever you are with, and knows all the stuff you bought. Great for advertisement and law enforcement.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#754

Post by exikyut »

Animats wrote: post #613
Animats wrote: post #602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do any of those companies actually have a live customer? Not a demo store, a real paying customer with more than one location live? Standard.ai apparently has a demo store in SF, although it's been closed due to the coronavirus epidemic. Grabango - one installation in test at a Giant Eagle store. Getzippin - one installation in test at a Lojas Americanas store. Their site gives the impression that it's really about g…

Found a Grabango video.[1] They did a test for NCR. [1] https://vimeo.com/352588185

Wow, I have no idea why but this is 404ing. IA can't tell me what the title was either.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#755

Post by dokem »

amelius wrote: post #744
dokem wrote: post #711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is an argument to be made of an acceptable increase in false negatives as the cost can be recouped through the efficiency of the system. Not to mention that a system like this should also cut down on theft.

I don't think so, because people will figure out the weak spots and share this information. It will become a sport and people will think "last time I grabbed the milk like this, and they didn't charge me for it, what if I do it again tomorrow?" Hackers will start wearing special clothes with dazzle patterns or with grocery items to fool the system, etc.

What you're describing is no different than the thief mentality that exists today. Most people don't care to steal a carton of milk just because they can. And there's no denying the cost effectiveness of removing your checkout staff or else this tech wouldn't exist.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#756

Post by mcv »

> "Shoppers enter the store with a credit card, grab what they want and just walk out - it's that easy."

I suspect it's still going to be slightly more involved than that. At the very least, they need to know your credit card, so there's still going to be some checkout, even if not every product has to be scanned manually.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#757

Post by amelius »

dokem wrote: post #755
amelius wrote: post #744

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so, because people will figure out the weak spots and share this information. It will become a sport and people will think "last time I grabbed the milk like this, and they didn't charge me for it, what if I do it again tomorrow?" Hackers will start wearing special clothes with dazzle patterns or with grocery items to fool the system, etc.

What you're describing is no different than the thief mentality that exists today. Most people don't care to steal a carton of milk just because they can. And there's no denying the cost effectiveness of removing your checkout staff or else this tech wouldn't exist.

The difference is that with this kind of stealing the people doing it are not accountable.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#759

Post by petra »

Naracion wrote: post #565
tmilard wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, IBM "thinks" the future. Other companies build them. Conclusion : ideas are worthless, Execution is key

May I suggest a rephrasing for that? Execution can bring profit. Ideas might not. History is full of examples of visionaries coming up with ideas that have inspired and fueled others--in some cases whole industries have been founded on these ideas. For instance, Doug Engelbart gave the "Mother of All Demos" in 1968 [1]. It was a proof of concept, but the ideas he talked about were implemented by other companies--who…

Of course you need both execution and ideas.

But let's say you have very good ideas but you're a mediocre executioner.

1. Could you find a very lucrative job/partnership mostly because of your ideas, and get quality help with the execution ? It's possible.

2. Ideas are easy to steal. Do you have a decent strategy to prevent that from happening ? Those sometimes exist.

3. Not every business sucseeds. Can you try repeatedly ? Maybe, depending on context.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#760

Post by airstrike »

zepto wrote: post #751
airstrike wrote: post #713

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hope Amazon comes up with an awesome way to help the cashiers this technology replaces. I'm not sure why this should be on Amazon. It's on all of us to better train people to have the jobs of the future. Our education system hasn't really changed in 100+ years. It needs to.

Is it on all of us? Why should Amazon reap the benefit of this innovation while the rest of us pay for the consquences?

Amazon doesn't rip the benefits alone, all of us do. Just like Apple doesn't benefit alone from having invented touch-screen smartphones.

And if these companies profit, they do so as a reward for spending the capital (dollars and manhours) in creating new technologies that improve productivity. Specifically total factor productivity in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobb%E2%80%93Douglas_product...

It's on all of us because it really isn't on anyone in particular, surely not on Amazon.

I can take your statement and flip it around just as easily: why should Amazon bear the costs of paying for many R&D ideas that may or may not pay off? We should all share that cost if we're all going to benefit from those innovations

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