New Zealand-based Imagr thinks camera-based AI is the future of shopping trolleys – TechCrunch

Lamb also said the modular method just makes more sense when scaling. Smart carts can cost retailers between $5,000 and $10,000 per unit and require a lot of maintenance compared to simple shopping carts, which tend to cost retailers less than $100 and will get beat up for years before being replaced. Amazon's walk-out tech is expected to cost retailers upwards of $1 million for installation and hardware, and that doesn't include maintenance over time. Currently, the full system that it's piloting is about $75,000 and includes 10 carts, an imaging station, a server station to run the system, full integration into a customer-facing store and Imagr support over the duration of the pilot. Imagr didn't share how much its current model of trolleys cost versus its modular system, but says it'll be a cheaper endeavor.