Even this IRL store is an automated, digital experience

Tally is a “shy” robot. 

Unlike the gregarious, extroverted Pepper robot seen roaming in shopping malls and interacting with customers and answering questions, Tally quietly does its thing with the occasional beeping sound. 

The unobtrusive self-driving machine can be spotted at the first U.S. location of the French sporting goods store Decathlon in downtown San Francisco. The lanky machine on wheels is the first fully autonomous inventory robot, meaning it roves aisles and tracks RFID chips on nearly 10,000 products. 

It’s not supposed to really interact with customers – that’s a duty left to the store’s workers. But it’s friendly enough, with a short message on it that says “Hi, I’m Tally!” and digital eyes to give it a human-like appearance as it roams around. Read more…

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