I like shopping online with Amazon, but I would hate seeing groceries taken away with unmanned dystopian and probably very dysfunctional automated outlets like on the Amazon video.
What happens when something goes wrong? -- The automated video system thinks you have taken two products when you have taken just one; or it thinks you have taken one and you took two, and a security guy who has zero authority over how the system operates, or understanding of it, accuses you of stealing; or a discount was advertised on the shelf but not implemented on the system; etc.
What happens if Amazon decides, for some reason that they will not explain and that you can't appeal, to cancel your account? Then you can't even go grocery shopping?
The future is much less exciting than it used to be.
Personally I've found Amazon's customer service is pretty reasonable (sometimes you need to dig in the site to find something). I know they aren't a great company in other ways - their workers are poorly paid and overworked, but that's one thing I'm not worried about.
> What happens if Amazon decides, for some reason that they will not explain and that you can't appeal, to cancel your account? Then you can't even go grocery shopping?
Only if they have a monopoly, if this proves successful I expect other shops will start investing in this too (or licence the technology). You're just as likely to have an issue currently if you live in Bumfuck, Nowhere and the only store around refuses to serve you because they suspect you of stealing.
The only store in Bumfuck doesn't operate a giant online marketplace and therefore is very unlikely to refuse to serve me because of a computer glitch, or because someone somewhere hacked my account, or because I changed the username on my Kindle (https://www.reddit.com/r/amazon/comments/5gvgdl/using_a_amaz...)
In any case I can always walk up to the manager at Bumfuck General Store and resolve any disagreement we might have, simply by... talking. Also, said manager is in charge, he can make decisions and reverse previous decisions.
Amazon employees aren't in charge of anything, the system is. They can read what's on their screen, and press a few buttons on screens that have choices, and that's it.
The problem with automation isn't only that robots are displacing humans, but that at the same time it's changing humans into robots (dumb ones).
I like shopping online with Amazon, but I would hate seeing groceries taken away with unmanned dystopian and probably very dysfunctional automated outlets like on the Amazon video.
What happens when something goes wrong? -- The automated video system thinks you have taken two products when you have taken just one; or it thinks you have taken one and you took two, and a security guy who has zero authority over how the system operates, or understanding of it, accuses you of stealing; or a discount was advertised on the shelf but not implemented on the system; etc.
What happens if Amazon decides, for some reason that they will not explain and that you can't appeal, to cancel your account? Then you can't even go grocery shopping?
The future is much less exciting than it used to be.