Amazon Go Almost Ready for Prime Time

Company says it has worked out many of the technical bugs and is hiring store-related personnel.

November 16, 2017

NEW YORK – Bloomberg reports that for the past year, Amazon employees have been testing its Amazon Go convenience store in Seattle. (If you’re still not sure what Amazon Go and its “just walk out” technology is all about, click here.)

The news source writes that part of the cashierless store’s testing has come from employees who have tried to fool the technology.

“One day, three enterprising Amazonians donned bright yellow Pikachu costumes and cruised around grabbing sandwiches, drinks and snacks. The algorithms nailed it, according to a person familiar with the situation, correctly identifying the employees and charging their Amazon accounts, even though they were obscured behind yellow polyester,” notes Bloomberg.

Amazon unveiled Amazon Go nearly a year ago in December, saying it planned to open the store to the public in early 2017. However, the store was met with technical challenges and postponed the launch. The store uses cameras, sensors and algorithms to watch customers and track what they pick up, noted the Wall Street Journal in March, adding that Amazon had “run into problems tracking more than about 20 people in the store at one time, as well as the difficulty of keeping tabs on an item if it has been moved from its specific spot on the shelf.” The technology was functioning flawlessly when there was only a small number of customers inside the store, or when their movements are slow.

Bloomberg writes that challenges remain, but the “just walk out” technology has improved markedly, although the system still struggles to accurately charge people who are moving around in groups. To fix the problem, Amazon Go engineers have been studying groups, like families shopping together, and tweaking their sensors to recognize when a child eats an item while wandering around the store. Engineers are also figuring out which person to charge when a couple goes shopping together.

The news source adds that analysts expect a version of Amazon Go technology to be rolled out eventually at Whole Foods, which is also a far more challenging prospect considering the footprint of a Whole Foods is significantly larger than a 1,800-square-foot convenience store.

Listen to the NACS Convenience Matters podcast featuring Kevin Coupe’s insights on Amazon Go.

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