Amazon Scout is a fully-electric robot that uses autonomous devices to safely deliver goods to the customers.
After many hours of development in Seattle, Amazon has finally decided to let their robots to the tasks they were designed for. Initially, only 6 robots have been released now and all of them are in Washington state, Snohomish County. They will deliver packages Monday through Friday in daylight hours. While traveling through the County’s pavements, the robots can avoid human, pets or other objects on the way, but at the initial release which took place at Wednesday – Amazon said that the robots will be accompanied by an Amazon employee.
This is how the process is supposed to look like.
As you can see the robot is fairly big. My main concern is security. What could be stopping a potential robber from just straight up coming up and stealing the whole robot or when the lid opens taking out the package and running off. The idea is great, but somehow seems to have many holes that could be exploited. Those questions aren’t answered yet, but Amazon is looking at it pretty optimistically.
We are happy to welcome Amazon Scout to our growing suite of innovative delivery solutions for customers and look forward to taking the learnings from this first neighborhood so Amazon Scout can, over time, provide even more sustainability and convenience to customer deliveries.
Looks like they are equipped with proper tools and a plan. It is very exciting to see new autonomous devices helping people like this robot or Amazon’s drones. Questions will arise:
Is it likely for robots like this to take jobs away from people, leading to more unemployment?
And when will the technology leave the US and make it to Poland?
source: https://blog.aboutamazon.com/transportation/meet-scout
Definitely it can not be very safe, stuff can be easily stolen. However Amazon has many products which are not very valuable and unique. For example books or writing implements and I think it might work if everybody knows that those robots deliver only cheap products.
I have plenty of concerns with this robot.
Firstly, it takes entire pavement. How is it suppose to avoid human when there will be high curb or any other obstacle.
Secondly, it’s really slow. Will it manage to cross the street while the traffic light is green?
Thirdly, how will this robot know who is standing next to him and grabbing a package? I guess there will be a code send via phone or something like in parcel locker, but this begs the question – how many packages can be hidden in this robot at once.
And finally, I think there will always be people who will steal, damage or simply make fun of this device by for example riding on it.
For now, I am not a huge fun of this concept, but I am definiately curious how it will develop in the future.
I agree, that it has many flaws when you first look at it. In fact, my first thought was how are they gonna tackle the problem of people who will just come up and steal the package when the lid opens or just steal the whole robot. I also can’t image this robot crossing the street in a bustling city where a lot of cars are on the road or how will it actually know when to cross. I’m sure Amazon will somehow come up with ideas how to prevent this.