Amazon Scout (robot courier)

2022: Minimizing the project

In early October 2022, Amazon is winding down trials of its home delivery robot, the latest sign that the e-commerce company is starting to wind down pilot projects amid slowing sales growth.

Work on the autonomous Scout machine, launched in 2019, has already stopped, according to a person familiar with the situation. Amazon spokeswoman Alice Carroll said the development team is disbanding and will be offered new jobs at Amazon. About 400 people were working on the project around the world, according to an interlocutor who asked for anonymity. The backbone of the team will continue to consider the idea of ​ ​ an autonomous robot, but the current iteration does not work.

Amazon сворачивает испытания своего robot for home delivery

Amazon began testing bots on suburban sidewalks outside Seattle in 2019 and then expanded testing to Southern California, Georgia and Tennessee. The slow-moving devices, which were accompanied by people during the tests, were designed to stop at the front door and open the lid so that the buyer could pick up the package.

{{quote 'During limited Scout field trials, we worked to create a unique delivery experience, but through feedback we learned that some aspects of the program did not meet customer needs! As a result, we are completing our field tests and reorienting the program. We work with employees during this transition period, selecting jobs for them that best match their experience and skills, "said Amazon employee Alisa Carroll. }} Battery-powered robots are part of an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on delivery, the company said. In August 2022, the company still held meetings in settlements where it tested these devices. The vice president who oversaw the development of robots, Sean Scott, left Amazon back in 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile.^[1]

2019: Use in California

In early August 2019, Amazon officially began using its robots to deliver goods to shoppers' doorsteps in Southern California. The six-wheeled ground robot, named Scout, is designed to transport parcels autonomously from city distribution points to Amazon Prime customers' homes, replacing regular vans and mail carriers.

Amazon began using robots in California to deliver goods to shoppers' doorstep

Amazon has previously tested delivery robots in Washington state, but this is the first time such a system has appeared in California. The robotic delivery system deployed in the Irvine area will operate during the daytime. Despite the fact that test robots are designed for autonomous operation, during the test period they will be accompanied by ordinary workers who must make sure that they work properly.

These same people will evaluate the public reaction to robots - a serious factor that the company intends to take into account when planning the launch of an autonomous delivery system on the streets of the city. One of the main, if predictable, problems associated with mobile delivery robots is that the robot must move along sidewalks with pedestrians. In the event of protests from residents, city legislatures could restrict robot access to sidewalks.

Amazon is far from the only company to work with ground-based robots for delivery. Thus, Starship Technologies is actively supplying goods in the UK and on the campus of George Mason University.

The company already has more than 50,000 registered shipments on its account. A company called Refraction AI, the brainchild of two University of Michigan professors, has created a low-cost, lightweight REV-1 delivery robot that can move along both the bike lane and the side of the road.^[2]

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