“How ya doin'?”
That, from a shopper who — literally — ran into a robot while looking for a new refrigerator in San Jose.
Such is life at Lowe’s, which just rolled out its first shopping robot.
The robot, which had been tested at OSH Hardware locations (also owned by Lowe’s), is rolling through the aisles – coming to 11 Lowe’s near you.
Made by Fellow Robots of Mountain View, the robots come with 3D scanners to detect when people walk into the store, as well as laser sensors. They can also help track inventory for the stores.
And, they come from comic books!
According to Kyle Nel of Lowe’s, the company saw the robot shoppers “in a comic book. So, we hired science fiction writers to make the idea come to life,” and then brought Fellow Robot on board.
Local
It’s the latest example of robots coming into daily life, and if it works at a hardware store — who knows what’s next?
Scott tracks robots on Twitter: @scottbudman
