Do we really need a self-driving on-demand corner store?

2018 ces

Thanks to on-demand apps like Instacart and Caviar, you can pretty much have any food you desire delivered to your door 24 hours a day.

As of now, your bunches of organic bananas or piping hot pad thai arrive the old-fashioned way: carried by a flesh-and-blood human who drove a car.
However, new concepts such as Robomart -- an on-demand, electric, self-driving store -- could automate food deliveries. The Santa Clara, California-based startup showed off a smaller version its car at the CES tech conference in Las Vegas this week.
The working model will be the size of a minivan when it hits streets in the summer. One side of the car is dominated by a glass door that folds up to reveal shelves of food. The demo car was filled with rows of colorful fake fruit and vegetables, but the company imagines it being used for everything from groceries and corner-store essentials to hot ready-to-eat meals. It can travel up to 25 mph.
Robomart's creators told CNN Tech it will work like this: A hungry person uses a smartphone app to summon the food car -- an alert will be sent when it arrives at their home. The person walks to the vehicle, which will open up when it detects their presence. They grab the food they want and sensors will automatically detect what's missing and charge their account. No Robomart staffers will be in the car.
 Instead of running a fleet of vehicles themselves, the company wants to work with large retailers who would have their own branded Robomarts. A store could sign up for a 24-month lease, which would include an app they could rebrand as their own.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dragon Touch Vision 3 4K WiFi Action Camera Review

Image
I ordered this camera for general filming, I wanted a small but capable camera like the GoPro that could be used for lots of purposes - without having to worry about shock or water damage. This camera was a much cheaper alternative to the GoPro. The camera comes with the standard range of mounts and accessories, but some notable ones were that it came with a carrying case (many don't), a spare battery and a remote for photos/videos. I liked that there was a spare battery as when recording at 1080p these Action Cameras only typically last for about 1.5 hours of video, so many cameras don't come with a second battery when I think it's a must-have I was a bit disappointed that at 4K 30fps some frames were dropped, although this may be because I was using an older 4GB card that wasn't fast enough, I'll have to retry 4K video later on with a faster card.  What I found much better was 1080p 60fps recording, this was crystal clear and so smooth! For action shots, you wa...
Read more

Samsung Q65Q8FN Review

Image
The QLED series from Samsung builds on the Premium UHD series by adding a wider color gamut via Quantum Dot film and Quantum Dot color. It has excellent black levels and contrast and will capture the intended increased brightness and color of HDR content. This years model focuses more on an anti-reflective screen combined with better contrast through the new Q Contrast Plus technology. Has 240 motion rate. Differences between the Q7 and Q8 QLED TVs One of the key differences between the two series is the inclusion of the high end Ultra Black Panel in the Q8. Ultra Black Elite Panel:  Samsung is marketing this panel feature which is included only in the Q8 and Q9 QLEDs for those of us that do not adjust room light conditions when watching TV. This technology built in the Ultra Black panel increases brightness while decreasing glare by using micro dots on the surface of the panel to help redirect light from surroundings that would otherwise cause glare on the screen. The ot...
Read more

Alien Skin Exposure X3 review

Image
This review is based on use of Exposure X3 and a beta version of Exposure X3 Complete Workflow Update for Mac. Introduction We’ve reached the point with image editing software that most basic features are covered. Correcting for exposure, saturation, and other settings are the expected baseline, which means applications need something more to differentiate themselves. Some, like Skylum’s Luminar or Serif’s Affinity Photo (see Review: Affinity Photo 1.5.2 for desktop), are competing on price, along with the fact that they don’t require subscription plans. Add to the mix Alien Skin Software’s Exposure X3. It’s competitive on price—$149 on its own, or $199 for a bundle that includes a couple of the company’s utilities, with no subscription—but it also includes several unique features that demonstrate the company is willing to tailor the software experience to how its customers use the product. Differentiation in organizing Like Adobe’s Lightroom family of products, Expo...
Read more