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Amazon Ditches 'Just Walk Out' Checkouts at Its Grocery Stores (gizmodo.com)

submitted 7 months ago by Stopthatgirl7 to c/technology

96 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Amazon is phasing out its checkout-less grocery stores with “Just Walk Out” technology, first reported by The Information Tuesday. The company’s senior vice president of grocery stores says they’re moving away from Just Walk Out, which relied on cameras and sensors to track what people were leaving the store with.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I'm not an expert but uh, I don't think this had anything to do with AI. It was just a scanner in a basket.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Scanners in baskets/carts is what they are replacing this with.

The 'Just Walk Out' system was as the name implies; grab product and leave. No scanners, no checkout, no cashiers; just cameras watching you shop, and a heavy implication that that video is primarily watched by AI to determine your purchases. AFAIK the only scanners were to read a qr code on entry to associate you with your amazon account; the rest is hands off. Or at least that's what it's supposed to be. Seems there's a lot more labour under the hood than the advertising said. Shocker.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like it was primarily watched by people in India.

[–] Ottomateeverything 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, because when you run systems like that, you use the AI, and you have the people as a fallback for when the AI fails.

It was primarily watched by people in India because the AI was failing the vast majority of the time.

So yeah, the state of the art AI is... Failing at its job 70% of the time. Instead of the hoped goal of 5%.

[–] Harbinger01173430 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Can't they just...add sensors to the items and add them to your Amazon account cart anytime you add pick one, dunno, using some proximity stuff from the phone itself, then charge for the items once the phone leaves the store?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Sure they can, it just isn't as simple as "just" ;) How do you, for example, determine who picked which item if two people are standing next to each other? Or if something is put back?

Sure, a proof of concept will always work. Building it for the real world is a completely and utterly different beast.

[–] Squizzy 0 points 7 months ago

It did have AI, the cameras adjusted based on location, proximity, lighting, etc. They tracked you through the store and gavenyou a unique ID were trained to manage you being blocked from view by other shoppers.