What Happens When Robots Can Deliver Your Groceries? (venturebeat.com)

"What if you could get groceries in less than two minutes without even leaving your apartment?" asks VentureBeat. "Another beer...? Think guacamole would go extremely well with those Doritos you just opened?" Several grocery-delivery startups are already working to make this a reality. Slashdot reader moglito summarizes their vision of autonomous indoor-delivery robots from automated refrigerators servicing high-rise apartment buildings. Coupled with AI algorithms for learning what residents like to consume, and algorithms for automatically restocking those items via a network of suppliers or logistics companies, this "bot-mart" could make grocery shopping a boring and time-consuming thing of the past... Will robots similarly reduce the need for a kitchen next?
Yes, the article also describes cooking robots (which can already prepare burgers, pizza, and sandwiches), as well as new automated delivery vehicles restaurants. "Perhaps the only question remaining is whether there is a business case for this," they point out -- though under some scenarios, it could actually prove cheaper than driving to the grocery store yourself. "Consumers will find it ever easier to get what they want, when they want it, where they want it."

Comments

Re:It sounds great

[Kjella]

When you leave your home, do you really want to spend that time at the grocery store? I'd rather let someone else pick and deliver my groceries so I can do the things I *want* to do.... I don't find grocery shopping to be particularly pleasant.

To be honest, as long as I shop at my regular store where I know roughly where everything is I don't really spent that much longer picking the groceries than I did selecting them and it's on the way home from work so it's not a detour at all. My impression is that their main market for delivery services are elderly who can't drive a car and don't want to carry heavy shopping bags around. The other thing I see that is more mainstream here in Norway is "food boxes", basically you get a box with all the ingredients for meals for a week in correct proportions and a paint-by-numbers guide on how to make it, basically a lazier way than checking recipe sites and finding it all yourself and still get varied food. It's not that expensive either because they create these in bulk, it's quasi-institutionalized cooking except everyone prepares their own meals. Personally I'm a create of habit and can easily rotate over a relatively small number of dishes.

What happens?

[HalAtWork]

Basically this: Robots start delivering peoples' groceries.