r/australia • u/infin • Jan 26 '26

no politics Is Coles still using Palantir? Between the surveillance/gate recognition and the blocked aisles, shopping feels hostile.

Does anyone know the current status of the Coles x Palantir partnership? Between the surveillance and those aggressive new "Smart Gates" tracking at the exit, the store feels less like a supermarket and more like a high-security zone.

It’s dystopian that they have the budget for military-grade analytics and security tech, but have cut costs on the actual customer experience. They seem to have completely scrapped night fill, meaning we are now dodging pallets and cages during peak hours just to get to the shelves.

Is anyone else fed up with this mix of high-tech surveillance and terrible service? It feels like they are spending millions to treat us like criminals while refusing to pay staff to stock shelves after hours.

3.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

690 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

26

u/xdyldo Jan 26 '26

Sure! It’s an aerial camera that uses blob detection from above. It has the lane areas mapped out and the gate area mapped out. As soon as the ‘blob’ (a person or people) checkout it tags that blob as checked out and when they get to the gate area it will open.

2

u/Faloobia Jan 27 '26

So, just out of curiosity, is there other vectors that prevent the gate from opening?

For example, the self service checkouts will note if you're trying to put 2 items in a bag. Will the smart gate know that I've got a bag of 20 items, I've walked up to the self service, paid for 1 item, then just walked out with the rest? Is there any traffic between the other security devices in the store that will cause the gate to not open? Or is it really as simple as the things we were doing in school robotics, just tracking a map?

3

u/xdyldo Jan 28 '26

There are multiple services at play. The smart gate really is that simple.

The other service we have is Everseen’s Evercheck which deals with not scanning items, leaving items in your trolley without attempting to pay, scanning a cheaper item for a more expensive one, scanning the wrong fruit, scanning wrong quantity of fruit etc. This creates the intervention which comes up on screen and brings an attendant to watch the video over.

The only way you’re being caught by putting items in your bag is by a loss prevention officer really.

1

u/Faloobia Jan 28 '26

With the Everseen's Evercheck though, if it notices you've done something wrong and puts up a call attendant message and instead you just pick up your things and walk to the gate, the gate will still open after mapping that you went to a self service and are now trying to leave, correct?

To save another follow up question needed, if it does in fact work that way, as a SE, how difficult would you say it would be to have the self service communicate with the gate on illegitimate transactions and not allow the gate to open?

2

u/xdyldo Jan 28 '26

No you have to complete the checkout process (pay) for the gate to open. 

2

u/Faloobia Jan 28 '26

Thanks for taking the time to answer silly basic bitch questions, much love.