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Amazon Go: Amazon Opens The First Cashless And Cashierless Supermarket

Amazon Go: Amazon Opens The First Cashless And Cashierless Supermarket

The future is here – driverless cars, shops with no workers... what could possibly go wrong?

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

In the not-so-distant future you will be able to go through an entire day without having to talk to another human being if you want.

Most people would go mad without any kind of human interaction in their day, but for some people it might be bliss.

You can wake up in your house, get a driverless Uber taxi to work, work all day on your own (send a couple of emails to people - let them know you are still alive) and then get back in the driverless car for the ride home via an Amazon Go shop.

Amazon Go, Amazon's high-tech, cashless convenience store has opened.
PA

Yes, Amazon have opened a shop that will allow people to avoid other people by just picking up the things they want and simply walking out of the shop with them.

No, it's not shoplifting, because everything you take will be automatically charged to your Amazon account via an Amazon Go account on your phone.

The shop uses a fancy set of cameras and sensors to track you about the shop and spot whatever you pick up so it can charge your account for it automatically when you leave.

It's at the same time both creepy and cool. Although you wonder what it means for the future of shop workers if they decide to sell the technology to other shops further down the line.

The first outlet is mostly selling food and drink on the first floor of Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, but the idea could be used for anything basically, as long as the technology works properly.

Amazon Go openedto the Public in Seattle, Washington, on January 22.
PA

One shopper told Associated Press: "It's such a weird experience because you feel like you're stealing when you go out the door."

However, another said: "Just being able to walk out and not interact with anyone was amazing."

Despite the fact that there are no cashiers there, Amazon do still have to employ some people to make the food, stack the shelves and all that, but it isn't too much of a stretch to imagine that in the future these tasks will not be performed by humans.

A whole army of robot shelf stackers does sound really terrifying.

The technology that makes this possible has the potential to be revolutionary. It is so sophisticated that they haven't even felt the need to build in a fail-safe if it goes wrong.

She told CNBC: "It happens so rarely that we didn't even bother building in a feature for customers to tell us it happened. So thanks for being honest and telling us.

"I've been doing this a year and I have yet to get an error. So we've tried to make it super easy on the rare occasion that does happen either to remove it or enjoy breakfast on us."

Is anybody else worried that robots might eventually be better at their job than they are?

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Food, Phones and Gadgets, UK News, Shopping, Interesting, US News, Technology, Amazon