Kicking off an event that showcases Softbank's Pepper robot working in a business environment, the Japanese phone carrier says it's going to test it out for itself, announcing a Pepper phone shop staffed entirely by its robots. According to the company, you'll be able to sign up to a phone contract with the robot. (In fact, that's apparently the robot on the left's role; in the middle is the store manager and on the right is "time killer" Pepper.) That sounds both incredible and hugely suspicious, but I'll have to wait until the end of March to check it out for myself.
According to the announcement above, the Pepper Phone Shop with be "littered" with Pepper robots to give directions, advice, guidance and small talk. The shop will be open for only a limited run, and will act as a grand experiment for Softbank. We'll be reporting from today's "Pepper World" event with more details on the working robot later this week.
