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.
More Amazon news
New antitrust bill to stop Amazon from harming third-party sellers
US senators against Amazon A bipartisan group of senators in the US has announced plans to introduce a new antitrust bill that could reshape Amazon and other online marketplaces. The proposed bill would prohibit platforms from requiring companies operating on their...
Amazon got caught copying products and manipulating search results
Amazon got caught cheating? Amazon has been repeatedly accused of copying third-party sellers’ products and then manipulating the search results to favor Amazon’s own brands. The company has denied the accusations. Reuters got access to internal Amazon documents...
China energy crisis wreaks havoc in the manufacturing sector
China in the dark Factories in China's busiest manufacturing provinces have been ordered to suspend production for up to a week or even longer, prompting concern global supplies of goods might be disrupted. China is in the midst of an energy crisis that has turned...