Walmart wants you to be able to hail a shopping cart

[kingskring]

Are people this ****ing lazy that they cant walk 500 feet to the shopping cart rack and grab a damn shopping cart?

Walmart is planning to eventually have self-driving shopping carts roaming its stores and herding themselves out of the parking lot.
The U.S. government granted Walmart (WMT) a patent last week that indicates the company is planning to roll out a system that allows shopping carts to drive themselves.
According to the patent request, the carts will be equipped with detachable motors that have sensors and video cameras. Customers will be able to request a cart using a "user interface device" -- potentially a smartphone -- and the roaming motors will be able to fetch a cart and bring it to a customer.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/12/technology/walmart-shopping-cart-patent/

Click to read more...

 

[Dog]

This isn't the Science forum

 

[Devourers]

500 feet? Generally speaking they're at the entrance where you walk it 10 feet away. Then you gotta put them usually max 50 feet into a cart area when you're done. It's sad, I often see the people who would benefit from this scouring the parking lot for somebody to leave one of the first 3-5 spots when spot #6 is available

 

[JS19]

Americans are fat, so is this really a surprise?

 

[karnige]

surprised it doesn't come with a place for your gun and a tray for the cheeseburger

 

[HisIceness]

If it means that people might actually start putting the carts back in the cart corrals instead of leaving them in the ****ing parking lot then I might just get behind this.

Target has the same problem.

 

[tp71]

surprised it doesn't come with a place for your gun and a tray for the cheeseburger

Where's the cup holder?

 

[kingskring]

There needs to be a horn on the cart, that honks when its arriving

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Where's the cup holder?

An XXL one right?

There needs to be a horn on the cart, that honks when its arriving

Picturing this killed me.

 

[Kestrel]

Are people this ****ing lazy that they cant walk 500 feet to the shopping cart rack and grab a damn shopping cart?

I've seen quite a number that have been left in parking spots within 20 feet of a cart return, simply because people are too lazy to walk that distance. If this solves that problem, it's worth it.