Amazon ditches 'Just Walk Out' checkouts at its grocery stores

[wjfox]

Amazon Ditches 'Just Walk Out' Checkouts at Its Grocery Stores

By Maxwell Zeff
Published Yesterday

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.

Just over half of Amazon Fresh stores are equipped with Just Walk Out. The technology allows customers to skip checkout altogether by scanning a QR code when they enter the store. Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.

Instead, Amazon is moving towards Dash Carts, a scanner and screen that’s embedded in your shopping cart, allowing you to checkout as you shop. These offer a more reliable solution than Just Walk Out. Amazon Fresh stores will also feature self check out counters from now on, for people who aren’t Amazon members.

“We’re rolling out Amazon Dash Cart, our smart-shopping carts,” said an Amazon spokesperson to Gizmodo. Amazon confirmed this feature is replacing its Just Walk Out technology in existing stores.

Just Walk Out was first introduced in 2016, presenting Amazon’s biggest and boldest innovation in grocery shopping. The technology seemed incredible, but there were some stumbles. It often took hours for customers to receive receipts after leaving the store, largely because offshore cashiers were rewatching videos and assigning items to different customers. The system of scanners and video cameras in each store is also incredibly expensive.

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-d ... 1851381116

[wjfox]

Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.

WTF.

[FuturismFan]

I always thought this concept was extremely creepy, so I never went to Amazon stores. It's like you're being heavily watched the whole time you're in the store, it goes beyond just regular security cameras. Also, I don't like the idea of having to have an app to shop at a particular store, and what happens if you get charged incorrectly? I don't think these types of things will take off in the future just because of the creepy factor, I think a majority of people really dislike creepy stuff like this.

Amazon went full-force into creepy, I remember they had a thing where the delivery driver unlocks your door and goes into your house to drop your package off. And even though these creepy concepts have been around for a while, they haven't really taken off. Even though 'Just Walk Out' has been around for a long time, it didn't replace cashiers at stores.

Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.

WTF.

Lol, so it wasn't even automated. Well I suppose even self-checkouts need a person watching over them.

[firestar464]

Also Amazon sux

[Tadasuke]

Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.

WTF.

Real-life automation in practice. (>ლ)

[firestar464]

This isn't the automation futurists are hoping for but rather just some sort of stupidity.

[Yuli Ban]

Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.

WTF.

This literally sounds like a parody, the exact kind of joke people have been making for years about ChatGPT in fact
"No, it's not actually AI. It's actually a bunch of Indians immediately answering your prompt!"

Except it's real.
Counterintuitively, nothing is real anymore. We've reached peak postmodernism.

[Powers]

Counterintuitively, nothing is real anymore. We've reached peak postmodernism.

[Powers]

I belive we reached peak postmodernism during the early to mids 10's, we're now retroceding to more simple and/or barbaric forms, especially after the quarantine.