Amazon starts testing deliveries with sidewalk drones

Amazon announced Wednesday that it would begin delivering parcels with the help of a six-wheeled sidewalk robot called Amazon Scout.

"Starting today, these devices will begin delivering parcels to customers in a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington," the company said in an announcement north of Seattle. Amazon says its robots "are the size of a small cooler and roll along sidewalks at a fast pace".

Amazon is far from being the first company to experiment curbside robots. Startups such as Starship and Marble have been testing the concept for a few years now. But as the largest Internet retailer, Amazon has the potential to quickly turn curbside delivery robots into a common phenomenon.

"We start with six Amazon Scout devices and deliver packages Monday through Friday, day by day," Amazon says. "The devices will track their delivery route independently, but will be accompanied by an Amazon employee first."

An Amazon 2016 patent filing describes a model in which small curbside robots transport packages from a complete delivery truck to customer addresses. Starship experimented with a similar approach using a full-size pickup truck as a "parent ship" to carry a fleet of eight sidewalk drones into a neighborhood, with a full load of parcels. A human worker then transfers the truck's parcels to the sidewalk drones, which then drop them off at a customer's address.

Of course, for this model to work, it will be necessary to rethink how package delivery is organized. At present, Amazon hires people to drop parcels at the customer's premises, where they sit unattended until the customer comes home and picks them up. But Amazon's sidewalk drones do not seem designed to drop parcels. Instead, a video that accompanies the ad shows an Amazon robot parking in front of a customer's house and the outgoing customer to meet the drone.

So maybe Amazon will send a truck into a neighborhood filled with packets for customers in this neighborhood Once the truck has arrived, it can inform customers of its proximity, allowing them to claim a window of accurate delivery in the next few hours. If a customer is not available that day, the truck can keep the package and try again the next day.

This seems to be a more complicated model, but it would reduce the number of parcel flights and could prove more effective if it allowed a delivery person to deliver more parcels a day. This could also be badociated with a change in the behavior of buyers. Instead of ordering a product and expecting it to appear on its porch a few days later, customers could get used to placing an order at work in the morning and expect to pick it up from a robot. sidewalk the same evening.

To be clear, I'm just speculating here. The announcement of Amazon does not provide much details on how its sidewalk robots will be loaded nor on how the company will ensure that customers are available to pick up their parcels when & # 39; A robot arrives. This announcement indicates that customers will "place orders as they would normally and their Amazon packages will be delivered either by one of our trusted supplier partners or by Amazon Scout". Amazon states that customers "will benefit from the same delivery options, including fast, FREE same day, one day, and two day shipping," but without specifying how these options will work with delivery bots.

Amazon's interest in sidewalk robots sets it apart from startups like Nuro and Udelv that build legal robots designed to travel faster and longer. Nuro's robots move up to 25 miles at the hour and he has made an agreement with Kroger to allow him to shop at a Kroger-owned grocery store in the Phoenix area. Udelv has a similar deal with Walmart. The larger reach and speed of these robots do not require working with a larger delivery truck.