Amazon Launches Robot Delivery System

Amazon six-wheeled, sidewalk-driving delivery Scout robots have begun making deliveries to customers in Southern California.

Robots will be making their way to customer homes “during daylight hours,” Monday to Friday, reports TechCrunch. They’ll be sent out at random for orders placed by customers through Amazon as usual, regardless of which delivery option you select.

While the robots can drive themselves around, which is the whole point of the project to begin with, for the time being they’ll be accompanied by an “Amazon Scout Ambassador.” These Amazon staff are part diplomat, part research associate for the project, answering questions from people in the neighborhood and also taking note of their reactions.

 Robots aren’t yet actually interacting with people too much on a daily basis, especially out in the world, so a key part of rolling them out commercially is studying how people interact with them, and thinking about how those interactions might be altered or improved.

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