Amazon has opened its first supermarket with no checkouts in downtown Seattle. Amazon Go was opened in December 2016 but was previously only available to staff.
How does it work?
Amazon Go works by using computer vision and sensors to identify and track what items you’re taking out of the store.
When you enter the store via a gated turnstile where you scan your app then do your shopping as normal with the sensors throughout the store identifying the items in your cart. If a shopper puts an item back on the shelf, Amazon removes it from his or her virtual cart.
Purchases are billed to customers’ credit cards when they leave the store.
Teething problems
According to an Amazon insider, there were some teething problems correctly identifying shoppers of similar body types and children moving items to the wrong places on shelves.
Gianna Puerini, vice-president of Amazon Go, said the store worked very well throughout the test phase.
“This technology didn’t exist — it was really advancing the state of the art of computer vision and machine learning.”
Amazon Go uses “the world’s most advanced shopping technology” and could make supermarket queues a thing of the past.
That queues of the past thing doesn’t seem to be working so far judging by the below image.
There has been no comment from Amazon about plans to open more Amazon Go stores in other locations.
