Self-driving, artificially intelligent store will travel to customers
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Featuring artificially intelligent holograms, self-driving technology and solar panels, Swedish retail startup Wheelys’ mobile store could be the future of retail.

A self-sufficient supermarket, the human-less Moby-Mart will navigate to different locations by day and utilize artificially intelligent holograms to assist customers.

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A customer will unlock the store’s entrance door, scan items, and check out all on his/her phone.

Currently a prototype, the store is being driven around by humans around the streets of Shanghai. Wheelys and China’s Hefei Technical University are working on implementing self-driving technology.

With self-driving technology in place, the Moby-Mart could drive itself to where it is in high demand, and then drive itself back to the warehouse when it’s low on stock.

The store’s hologram assistant, powered by artificial intelligence and connected to the cloud, is capable of tracking shopping behaviors of customers around the world. The assistant can make even recipe recommendations. The assistant would allow the store to remain open 24/7 365 days a year with no reliance on human staff.

"Mobile stores are much more efficient than physical ones," co-founder Per Cromwell told Dezeen. "Mobile stores can serve business areas during the day and residential areas during evenings and weekends. They can also serve the countryside or vacation areas in a smarter way."

Running on electricity and equipped with solar panels, the Mob-Mart is the most environmentally friendly store on the market, says Wheelys.

Wheelys hopes to start deploying real units in 2018, and expects them to cost around $100,000.

 

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Robert Dalheim

Robert Dalheim is an editor at the Woodworking Network. Along with publishing online news articles, he writes feature stories for the FDMC print publication. He can be reached at [email protected].