Amazon is powering up its electric delivery vans with the power of AI

Amazon is using a new, proprietary AI solution called Vision-Assisted Package Retrieval (VAPR) to reduce the time and effort it takes for delivery drivers to locate packages in their vans. Is it a game-changer, or more AI VAPR-ware?

Somewhat lost in the hype surrounding the Tesla “We, Robot” event on 10/10 was an AI press release from Amazon that promises to improve the lives of the people who use it today, rather than two years from now.

VAPR makes Amazon delivery drivers’ lives easier by automatically identifying the packages to be delivered at a given stop. The system then project a green “O” on all packages that will be delivered at that stop, and a red “X” on all other packages. When the driver picks up all the “correct” packages, VAPR delivers an audible cue to help ensure no packages get left behind.

Cameras + lasers = easier delivery

I’d like to imagine the system sounds something like, “Good delivery driver, you found the thing! Who’s a good delivery driver? You’re a good delivery driver!”

The VAPR system eliminates the need for delivery drivers to use a phone during the delivery process. As a result, Amazon says its drivers won’t have to spend time organizing packages by stops, reading labels, or manually checking identifiers like a customer’s name or address to ensure they have the right packages in between stops. Instead they’ll just look for a green light, grab the packages, and go.

The Amazon Transportation team says it’s spent hundreds of hours testing VAPR in the field with its drivers to test their early assumptions about the system’s ability to help. In early tests, Amazon saw a 67% reduction in the perceived physical and mental effort of its drivers, and more than 30 minutes were saved per route.

VAPR is set to be installed in 1,000 new Amazon electric delivery vans immediately, with plans to expand the program if those results continue to hold.

With over 390,000 Amazon delivery drivers worldwide and more than 100,000 vans in Amazon’s fleet delivering millions of packages every day, technology like VAPR promises to save time and effort at incredible scale.

Electrek’s Take

As someone who is unashamedly and unapologetically pro-labor, I want to celebrate Amazon for making its drivers’ lives easier. That said, Amazon’s constant drive for efficiencies has led to accusations that it abuses its employees.

Court cases against the online retail giant allege that its “harsh work quotas” and “elaborate tracking” make it nearly impossible for workers to veer off course to use a restroom. Leading to trash cans at Amazon fulfillment centers (where drivers begin and end trips) being “frequently overflowing” with bottles of urine that employees have thrown away, according to the lawsuit. It’s a topic we covered in an early HEP-isode of The Heavy Equipment Podcast, which I’ve included (at bottom) out of sheer weirdness, so enjoy that.

Here’s hoping, then, that Amazon uses those extra 30 minutes that VAPR provides to give its drivers better working conditions and the basic breaks their bodies need.

HEP-isode 5 | Wireless Charging, and Piss Jugman

SOURCE | IMAGES: Amazon, via Chain Store Age; Forbes.