https://techmonitor.ai/technology/ai-and-automation/autonomous-store-carrefour

French supermarket giant Carrefour has opened its smallest-ever autonomous store. The Carrefour BuyBye outlet in Zaventem, Belgium measures just 18m2 and offers soft drinks, fruit, snacks and lunch items in refrigerators accessed through Carrefour’s BuyBye app. Announced last year, the store is one of several such facilities operated by Carrefour and the latest in a wave of similar (and larger) shops that have appeared in the UK, US and Europe in recent years. 

The store is completely unmanned and operated using a combination of AI-powered weighing scales and cameras, with computer vision algorithms embedded in the latter trained to recognise every product on display. Access to the shop, meanwhile, is provided to shoppers after they download Carrefour’s BuyBye app on their mobile device and use it to scan a QR code on the door. Items can then be obtained from the fridges by the customer and then automatically be charged to their bank accounts (payment can also be made using a contactless bank card.)