Amazon Go • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Go

#871

Post by chipperyman573 » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:41 PM UTC

wallacoloo wrote: post #805

patrickg wrote: post #761

Not many comments about privacy. This is how I see it: You are identified when you enter the shop and amazon knows exactly the products you buy. If you have the choice to buy or not to buy at the shop, that's fine, it is your decision. But let's imagine that in the not so far future, all shops in your neighborhood are like this. No way to go shopping whithout given exact trace of you, your location, the stuff you buy…

There are a lot of social issues that a system like this might entail, in addition to privacy: 1. Not everyone has a smartphone. 2. Not everyone has an electronic account with which to pay (or for practical reasons, they can't use it frequently). And the people that fall into those categories aren't just fringe. Parents give dollar bills to their kids & send them to the store to fetch food. People without established…

Can't people with no credit open a checking account and get a debit card? I was never askef for a credit score when opening one of those.

Re: Amazon Go

#872

Post by asragab » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

joshumax wrote: post #637

dap wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim that increased automation will enable people not to work is often cited as a defense of putting people out of work in favor of automation. This relies heavily on a number of assumptions that I think are empirically completely untested: - that automating all jobs will cause all prices to go down. (It seems just as plausible that if everything were automated, then the relatively small class of people who work…

Funny how I just finish my Thesis on automation and its effects on globalization and the workforce the day before this comes out...

I imagine this scenario has played out a thousand times when it comes to the socioeconomic effects of technology given the rapid pace of ostensible innovation. I think it actually is part of the problem, while not a specific critique of Amazon Go, to the degree that technology advances at a rate faster than we can make sense of their effects, we face the possibility of endangering the lives of millions of people. Theses and dissertations aren't the only means of understanding, but they are invaluable mechanisms for grounding the discursive space in a digestible format.

Re: Amazon Go

#873

Post by makomk » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #363

lorenzhs wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't ever use a Chip + Signature credit card at a Tesco self-checkout, they had to reboot the thing when I accidentally used it instead of my regular UK Debit card. Other than that I really like self-checkouts, usually much quicker and they're excellent for coin disposal (dump all your coins in it and pay the rest by card).

>> Don't ever use a Chip + Signature credit card at a Tesco self-checkout Are UK banks giving these out? I've never come across them before.

They're standard issue from American banks these days. I believe you can request them from UK ones too if you have trouble remembering a PIN, though.

Re: Amazon Go

#874

Post by btym » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

gr3yh47 wrote: post #481

homerguy69 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its probably too creepy in terms of privacy to detail how it works which in turn will give themselves PR. I can only assume it uses arrays of cameras and sensors with deep learning. Glorious amounts of tracking data.

yep. full on dystopian tracking was my first thought.

It's not "dystopian" if you're on private property and have accepted their terms of service. You can avoid surveillance by, you know, choosing not to shop there.

Re: Amazon Go

#875

Post by jaypaulynice » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

rtkwe wrote: post #844

jaypaulynice wrote: post #715

I'm guessing it's not as simple as they make it look in the video...unless the food tags have some kind of RFID/Bluetooth to communicate with the phone in your pocket...maybe the grocery bags? Even with cashiers sometimes they don't know what the price is...also some things are sold by the pounds...where is the scale? What if you pay then walk back in again? You get double charged?

No need for them to talk to your phone or a smart bag. They just funnel you out through a lane and scan them there if they're using RFID. They can also do this theoretically without using RFID at all if they can solidly determine what product you're taking off the shelf, maybe by using good cameras to see where you're reaching and if you're placing or replacing the item that's assigned to that slot. They've been trac…

It would take many cameras working together to pull this off...what happens when you drop out of sight? Feels like a big vending machine...If they're not competing with big grocery stores, then this won't scale well...right?

Re: Amazon Go

#876

Post by steego » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

CodeSheikh wrote: post #385

zaargy wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like it or not, this is the future. If Amazon don't do it then someone else will. People want cheap goods and this will give them cheaper goods. The solution to your worries is a universal basic income.

Try to become a part of the solution not part of the problem. As an engineer, this is a mesmerizing and a very appreciative tech. Kudos. As a (selfless) neighbor, I can never be happy to see unemployed neighbors. Sure we can create these autonomous technologies, but we also should be active in policy-making for our cities e.g. if 10 jobs are being displaced then collectively what are we doing to create 10 more jobs.…

Have you bothered to ask yourself where the money goes after it's put in the pockets of Bezos' and other Amazon investors? Do you think that money is just sitting in the bank doing nothing?

Re: Amazon Go

#877

Post by w-ll » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:44 PM UTC

leesalminen wrote: post #77

intrasight wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

explain

They always try to get me to punch in my loyalty card when buying (only) tobacco even though you don't get points on the purchase. It's made me wonder what they're doing with that data, and selling it to insurance companies came to mind.

I generally retire loyalty cards after a few months and ask for a new one next time I checkout. I also never fill in the phone number or other information.

But still I generally pay with cc/debit cards so the banks still know where, not necessarily what, but how much I spent.

Re: Amazon Go

#878

Post by saint_fiasco » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:45 PM UTC

preordained wrote: post #819

saint_fiasco wrote: post #748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the only reason those people have jobs is that we feel pity for them and don't want to automate their work, then what they have is not a job. It's just disguised welfare. Why not just give them actual welfare?

But will we...give them actual welfare, training, some transition? Or are we going to bring in the automation and let nature take its course?

The parent comment men says they are in Barcelona, so maybe it won't be politically impossible to just give them welfare.

In the US, it might require some doublespeak to keep people from revolting at the "socialist" implications of paying people for not working.

Re: Amazon Go

#879

Post by Keverw » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:46 PM UTC

I love this idea! I hate how stores only have like 1 or 2 registers opened.

I wonder how it would react to a family shopping, is it tracking people or the bag? Hopefully it'd bill who ever has the bag in case your kid puts in a bunch of junk food. Supporting carts for larger purchases seems like somthing is missing.

But yeah I love this. I hope we move towards the future when repetitive jobs are all automated and we have some sort of basic income. So the human race can be more innovative and everyone can unlock their true potential instead of being a corporate drones for a job they never liked and can't figure out how to get out of it.

Edit: Wanted to add real quick - as things do get more automated. I do hope there's a easy way to get ahold of human in case of things acting up or if you just need some help. I know tons of sites seem to not even provide support or make it super hard to even find a contact. Amazon itself seems to have good support from what I've heard, never really had to use it but in general companies should focus on support also, with or without automation. Just seems like somthing generally lacking to me in the tech industry.

Re: Amazon Go

#880

Post by robryan » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 8:46 PM UTC

parennoob wrote: post #154

dpark wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They screw up for me about 60% of the time. Alcohol is annoying but understandable. More problematic is the weight sensor that misreads the product after I set it down and forces me to wait for an assistant to click a button that says it's okay. I'll occasionally get the register that isn't calibrated properly and then I need assistance for every item. That's fun. I have given up on bagging as I check out. It goes cr…

> I have given up on bagging as I check out. It goes crazy every time I open a bag and set it in the bagging area. So now I just pile up my groceries and bag them when I'm done, which wastes everyone's time. This. Trying to do the following a) Open one of the cellophane bags that are stuck closely together b) Put the product I just scanned in it c) Take my hand away so it reads the weight correctly ...are way too dif…

The ones in supermarkets in Australia started off with a lot of weight related issues. Seems to work fine now, not sure if they have gotten smarter or just less picky with weights.