I can see the headlines already "little old lady ran over by unattended shopping trolley"
I dare say such a system would be a confounded nuisance in the supermarket I shop at, there are already shopping trollewy traffic jams in the aisles if one goes shopping during the busy periods.
Just imagine two trolleys, "following" their masters and approaching from the opposite direction in a crowded aisle. It'll be either a head on or a merry little dance as the trolley computers try to figure out on which side to pass each other.
Another scenario: the shopper stops suddenly, having spotted some bargain on a shelf. There better be some pretty smart control device on the trolley, capable of stopping equally suddenly, or the poor shopper gets run over. The lawyers would have a field day with that one :wink: .
Nah, I vote this idea thumbs down, its too troublesome to have remotely powered trolleys and shoppers in the same aisle at the same time.
What's more, all this costs money and the customer pays it in the end with marked up prices on the shelves. Shopping is expensive enough already, we pay for the trolleys and those that have gone 'walkabout', just imagine these expensive motorised trolleys being 'borrowed' for joy rides by unruly kids.
You'd better fit a good camera onto the trolley and figure out a way it could be driven around the shop by remote control from your home, doing the shopping by robot arm. Pick the shopping up later at some drive by loading dock, it already having been paid for. Such systems are already in use in large ware houses.
Klaus