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e

Tech

Amazon Rolls Out Scout, Their Autonomous Delivery Vehicle

And, we know why it isn't being tested in a major city

By Rain Noe - January 24

Amazon has just announced the rollout of Scout, their autonomous, electric delivery robot thingy. Here's footage of it in "action," to give you an idea of its size and typical pace:

Enter a caption (optional)

As of yesterday, "these devices will begin delivering packages to customers in a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington," Amazon writes.

"We're starting with six Amazon Scout devices, delivering packages Monday through Friday, during daylight hours. The devices will autonomously follow their delivery route but will initially be accompanied by an Amazon employee. We developed Amazon Scout at our research and development lab in Seattle, ensuring the devices can safely and efficiently navigate around pets, pedestrians and anything else in their path."

Why Snohomish County, and not someplace more populated? We have our theories.

We Assume Other Potential Pilot Cities Were Rejected for These Reasons:

San Francisco: It would get stuck on a hill.

New York: It would get tagged.

Boston: Someone would kick it over.

Detroit: Someone would set it on fire.

Philadelphia: Someone would tag it, kick it over and set it on fire.

Los Angeles: It would get hit by a car.

Tech

Rain Noe

Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.

7 Comments

Sean Horita

5 months ago

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Snohomish County? Its going to be shotgun target practice.

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Frederick Fasola

4 months ago

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How does it ring the door bell???

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Juan Cano

4 months ago

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I'd like to ride on it!

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Peter Carrasquillo

5 months ago

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New York would also pee on it.
Just sayin'.

Spot on with Philly, though.

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- Chris Parke
  
  Peter Carrasquillo
  
  5 months ago
  
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  1Z
  
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  Philly would just yell at it and tell it 'They're the Superbowl Champs"
  
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P S

5 months ago

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I can only imagine these sorts of things being successful in the sort of affluent neighborhoods where there's very nice sidewalks that almost never get used.

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Brad Johnson

5 months ago

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I know it has a tracking system, because it is obviously using GPS... but first thing I thought about is people stealing them. I'm sure they will figure out how to disable the tracking.

I wonder how secure it is? What would happen if you hit it with your car, or even just a sledge hammer? I think criminals would be more inclined to attack what is essentially a toy car than they would an actual human delivery person.

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