San Francisco Lowe's stores to get robot workers this fall

Shoppers at San Francisco area Lowe's stores are about to encounter a new kind of customer service worker: The LoweBot. It might: Lowe's Innovation Labs first showed off an autonomous shopping assistant at CES 2015. Back then it was called OSHBot (for Orchard Supply Hardware), and it was still a work in progress. Not anymore -- the LoweBot is scheduled to make its public debut this fall at 11 Bay Area hardware stores. The LoweBot is designed to cover the most basic retail customer service task: helping shoppers find the item they're looking for.