Amazon is working on a smart refrigerator [using Amazon Go tech] that can monitor your buying patterns and suggest new products or recipes

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Exclusive: Amazon is working on a smart refrigerator that can monitor your buying patterns and suggest new products or recipes

An Amazon smart fridge would represent the company's continued expansion into consumers' homes with its own hardware.

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A smart fridge by Samsung. David Becker/Getty Images

• Amazon's fridge would use some of the computer-vision tech found in Amazon Go cashierless stores.
• The company has been investing at least $50 million a year into the project, sources told Insider.
• This would be Amazon's latest move into consumers' homes with its own devices.

Amazon is developing a refrigerator that can automatically scan for low-stock items or expiring products and make refill orders — using some of the computer-vision technology found in Amazon Go cashierless stores, Insider has learned.

Amazon's physical-stores unit, which created the "just walk out" technology powering the Go stores, is leading the fridge project. This team is responsible for other cutting-edge products found in Amazon stores, such as the smart shopping cart called the Dash Cart and the Amazon One palm-reading payment system. Other segments, such as Amazon's Fresh grocery team and the Lab126 hardware unit, are also involved, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new fridge, internally code-named Project Pulse, is designed to track your inventory and purchase habits, predict what you want, and have it delivered. The system will be able to automatically notify you if certain repeat-purchase products, like eggs, are close to running out or nearing their expiration dates, these people said. It could also make ordering those products easier through Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods.

Other ideas being discussed include recipe suggestions, in case a product like salmon has been sitting in the fridge for a week and needs to be cooked soon, and health and nutrition advice, the people said.

Some TV shows and media columns have accurately predicted Amazon's idea for a smart fridge, they added, citing a 2017 column from The Verge. One of the people added that Jìan-Yáng's smart fridge in the popular HBO show "Silicon Valley" came close to the concept.

Amazon won't be manufacturing the smart refrigerators, these people said. Instead, the e-commerce giant wants to partner with a home-appliance company, and it has already held high-level talks with a number of large consumer electronics brands, they added. These appliances will likely come preinstalled with Amazon camera hardware and computer-vision software that are similar to the tech found in Amazon Go stores. The Alexa voice assistant could be added to the smart fridge, but it's not a priority at this point, the people said.

The team has been working on this project for at least two years. It's unclear when it will officially launch, and it's possible Amazon will shut down the project, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive topics. Amazon's spokesperson declined to comment.

A smart fridge would represent the company's continued expansion into consumers' homes via its own devices. Just last week, Amazon unveiled a home robot, Astro, that can help take video calls and monitor households. Amazon also released its first branded TV in the US last month. That's on top of an array of personal home devices, including a microwave oven, smart speakers, and a wall clock.

The release of Amazon's smart refrigerator would also put the e-commerce giant in direct competition with other home-appliance companies, including Samsung, LG, and General Electric. Many of those companies sell through Amazon's online marketplace.

More broadly, it shows Amazon's ambition to take its "just walk out" technology into other parts of the world. In September, Amazon announced two Whole Foods stores would start using this technology. Other venues, including Hudson Nonstop and TD Garden, also plan to roll out the technology.

The Amazon fridge is expected to come with a hefty price tag, given the complicated technology involved. The target audience is likely to be upper-income households that are already active Prime subscribers. It's in line with Amazon's latest strategy to release pricey gadgets, a major shift for a company known for using affordability as a key differentiator. Amazon expects the smart fridge's cost to decline as the technology matures and unit sales grow, the people familiar said.

'Undisclosed initiative'
The team for the smart fridge is spread across Seattle, India, and Southern California, including Irvine and San Diego, according to people familiar with the project. Fewer than 100 people are working on it, though the company has been investing at least $50 million a year into the initiative, these people said. The fridge's automatic scanning technology still needs to be refined, as trial users in India are manually recording some of the transactions, they added.

Gopi Prashanth, a director of computer vision and artificial intelligence, is leading the project. His LinkedIn profile says he previously worked on the launch of Amazon Go and the Dash Cart and is working on an "undisclosed initiative(s) spanning hardware, software and research in the space of computer vision and AI."

Prashanth's team has had high turnover in recent years as the project has stalled and faced growing challenges, the people said. Some of the early managers, including Robert Simmering, one of the first to pitch the idea, have left. Prashanth reports up to Dilip Kumar, the vice president of physical retail and technology.

Internally, there's growing concern about Amazon's slowing growth in the grocery business, particularly with Instacart's rapid rise, one of the people said. In fact, Amazon's grocery employees raised this issue during an August all-hands, saying Amazon's "subpar" product and user experience compared to "some startups in the grocery space that have far limited resources," Insider previously reported.

Amazon's US grocery e-commerce sales are expected to grow 12.9% this year to $29.12 billion, according to Insider Intelligence. That would give Amazon a 23.8% digital grocery market share, which would trail only Walmart's 25.3% share. But digital sales are still only about 10% of overall grocery sales, and offline sales are where Amazon "will continue to struggle" in the coming years, as it doesn't have the same level of physical presence as competitors like Walmart, Kroger, and Target, Insider Intelligence said.