Amazon Drops Just Walk Out Tech From Its Stores

Amazon is dropping AI-powered technology that allows shoppers to pick up grocery items from its Amazon Fresh stores and walk out without going through a checkout.

Amazon is removing its frictionless checkout system, Just Walk Out, in favor of the company’s smart-shopping carts that allow shoppers to scan their groceries as they shop.

Amazon confirmed to AI Business that Just Walk Out would be removed from U.S. Fresh stores but would not impact its Go stores or outlets in the U.K.

“We’ve invested a lot of time redesigning a number of our Amazon Fresh stores over the last year, offering a better overall shopping experience with more value, convenience and selection and so far we’ve seen positive results, with higher customer shopping satisfaction scores and increased purchasing,’ said AWS spokesperson Harry Staight. 

“To deliver even more convenience to our customers, we’re rolling out Amazon Dash Cart, our smart-shopping carts, which allows customers all these benefits including skipping the checkout line.”

Shoppers use the Dash Cart system by scanning a QR code on the Amazon app upon entry to a store.

The cart uses a combination of computer vision and sensors to identify items placed in the cart, enabling shoppers to pick up an item, scan it and place it in their cart while skipping the checkout.

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Amazon touted Just Walk Out as being powered by a combination of RGB cameras and computer vision. But The Information reported that an additional layer was at work, with more than 1,000 workers in India monitoring cameras to review customer purchases. 

Staight said their role was to annotate video images to better train the AI used to power Amazon’s frictionless checkouts.

“Associates may also validate a small minority of shopping visits where our computer vision technology cannot determine with complete confidence an individual’s purchases,” he said. “Just Walk Out technology has continued to scale while reducing the number of human reviews year-over-year.”

Launched in 2018, Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology monitored customers as they shopped, allowing them to pick up items and leave without going through the traditional checkout process. Instead, customers could be charged directly to their Amazon account. Amazon even tested letting shoppers use the palms of their hands as certification to enter stores, using a technology called Amazon One.

Amazon would later offer its Just Walk Out concept to other stores and venues including Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks. This allowed fans to purchase drinks and snacks in the stadium as they would have in an Amazon Go store.

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