Business Insider reports that Wal-Mart has just obtained a patent for a device called a ???motorized transport unit,??? a shopping cart with cameras, sensors and a central computer that allows the cart to drive itself around the store. Business Insider says these new carts ???can do much of the work a human employees would do.??? These MTU could dock themselves in a parking lot corral, come to customers when called, etc.
???With robots that can drive shopping carts and preform a wide array of other employee duties,??? Business Insider writes, ???Wal-Mart could cut the number of employees on payroll.???
In the not too distant future, customers could enter a superstore that had no human workers. They would be greeted by a shopping cart that would recommend things to buy on sale based on the customers shopping profile. If the shopper tried to steal, the robot cart could ram them up against aisle 4 until Wal-Mart loss prevention robots showed up.
Is Wal-Mart working on a computerized CEO who can run the company and replace the current CEO at a much lower cost? Don???t bet your shopping cart on it. Only the frontline workforce should worry about being replaced by Wal-Mart robots.
Read the full Insider Business story:
http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-could-ditch-workers-for-patented-tech-2016-9
Business Insider reports that Wal-Mart has just obtained a patent for a device called a ???motorized transport unit,??? a shopping cart with cameras, sensors and a central computer that allows the cart to drive itself around the store. Business Insider says these new carts ???can do much of the work a human employees would do.??? These MTU could dock themselves in a parking lot corral, come to customers when called, etc.
