这些智能购物车将让你在杂货店不用排队

这些智能购物车将让你在杂货店不用排队

Tired of standing in line? Wait a bit longer, and you may never have to again.

厌倦了排队?再等一段时间，你可能就再也不用这样做了。

Everyone from Amazon (AMZN) to Silicon Valley startups are trying to eliminate lines in retail stores.

从亚马逊到硅谷的初创企业，每个人都在努力消除零售店的排队现象。

Amazon has opened 24 of its Amazon Go stores, which use cameras and artificial intelligence to see what you've taken off shelves and charge you as you walk out.

亚马逊已经开设了24家亚马逊Go商店，这些商店使用摄像头和人工智能来查看你拿走的商品，并在你走出商店时向你收费。

Some startups such as San Francisco-based Grabango are closely mimicking Amazon's approach of using AI-powered cameras mounted in ceilings to identify what you've removed from a shelf and then charge you for those items.

一些初创公司，比如总部位于旧金山的Grabango，正在模仿亚马逊的方法，使用安装在天花板上的由人工智能驱动的摄像头来识别你从货架上拿走了什么，然后向你收取费用。

But others are trying an entirely different route to checkout: smart shopping carts. These companies have added cameras and sensors to the carts, and are using AI to tell what you've placed in them. A built-in scale weighs items, in case you have to pay by the pound for an item. Customers pay by entering a credit card, or by using Apple Pay or Google Pay.

但其他人正在尝试一种完全不同的结账方式:智能购物车。这些公司已经在购物车中添加了摄像头和传感器，并使用人工智能来告诉你放了什么。内置秤为物品称重，以防你需要按磅付费。顾客可以通过输入信用卡，或使用Apple pay或谷歌pay来支付。

When a customer exits the store, a green light on the shopping cart indicates that their order is complete, and they're charged. If something goes wrong, the light turns red, and a store employee is summoned.

当顾客离开商店时，购物车上的绿灯表示他们的订单已经完成，他们已经结账了。如果有什么地方出了问题，信号灯就会变成红色，商店的员工就会被叫来。

The startups behind the smart carts, including Caper and Veeve, say it's much easier to add technology to the shopping cart than to an entire store. Amazon's Go stores rely on hundreds of cameras in the ceiling. The shelves also include sensors to tell when an item is removed.

包括Caper和Veeve在内的智能购物车背后的初创公司表示，将技术添加到购物车中要比添加到整个商店中容易得多。亚马逊的Go商店依赖于天花板上的数百个摄像头。架子上还装有传感器，可以告诉你物品何时被取走。

Ahmed Beshry, co-founder of Caper, believes the technology to run Go is too expensive to use in a large-format grocery store.

Caper的联合创始人艾哈迈德·本什瑞认为，运行Go的技术过于昂贵，不适合在大型杂货店使用。

Amazon reportedly considered expanding to thousands of the Go stores. But it's only opened a couple dozen so far, possibly adding credence to the point that they're expensive to operate. Two of the stores are currently closed for renovations.

据报道，亚马逊考虑扩大到数千家Go商店。但到目前为止，它只开了几十家店，这可能让人们更加相信这些店运营成本高昂。其中两家店目前因翻修而关闭。

Amazon declined to comment for this story. Neither Caper AI nor Veeve have said how much their smart shopping carts will cost, making it difficult to compare the different formats.

亚马逊拒绝对此发表评论。Caper AI和Veeve都没有透露他们的智能购物车将花费多少钱，这使得比较不同的模式变得困难。

Shariq Siddiqui, CEO of Veeve, said he's finding increased interest from retailers given Amazon's steady expansion of Go since opening the first store in Seattle in 2018.

Veeve首席执行官谢里克·西迪基表示，鉴于亚马逊自2018年在西雅图开设首家门店以来，Go业务稳步扩张，他发现零售商对Go的兴趣与日俱增。

"We're always happy when Amazon is doing something," Siddiqui said. "They force retailers to get out of their old school thinking."

西迪基说:“当亚马逊在做一些事情时，我们总是很高兴。”“它们迫使零售商放弃传统的思维方式。”

Veeve is testing several of its shopping carts in an unnamed Seattle retailer.

Veeve正在西雅图一家不知名的零售商测试其几款购物车。

Siddiqui said the shopping carts will eventually offer customers real-time coupons. When a customer puts, say, peanut butter in their cart, they may be offered a 10% discount on jelly.

西迪基表示，购物车最终将为顾客提供实时优惠券。比如，当顾客把花生酱放进购物车时，他们可能会得到果冻10%的折扣。

But there are still kinks to work out in the technology.

但在这项技术中仍有一些问题有待解决。

Caper, which has small pilots in Canada and New York City, is currently having customers scan items on a barcode scanner built into the cart, before placing them in it. The process helps to teach the AI system to identify the store's items.

Caper公司在加拿大和纽约都有小规模的试点，该公司目前让顾客先用内置在购物车中的条形码扫描仪扫描商品，然后再把商品放进购物车。这个过程有助于教会人工智能系统识别商店的商品。

Anytime a business uses artificial intelligence and cameras, it raises questions about customer privacy and the impact on jobs.

任何时候，只要企业使用人工智能和摄像头，就会引发有关客户隐私和对就业的影响的问题。

Beshry notes that the cameras in his shopping cart point down into the cart, so only a customer's hand and part of their arm will be captured on camera.

本什瑞指出，他购物车里的相机指向下方的购物车，所以只有顾客的手和他们的手臂的一部分会被相机捕捉到。

Siddiqui said he envisioned grocery store cashiers shifting to roles where they freely float around stores and answer customers' questions, a format similar to the Apple Store.

西迪基说，他设想杂货店收银员转变角色，在店里自由走动，回答顾客的问题，这种形式类似于苹果商店。