Amazon Scout, the e-commerce giant’s fully-electric autonomous delivery robots, are heading south. To Atlanta, Georgia, and Franklin, Tennessee, specifically. Announced Tuesday in a blog post from Amazon Scout VP Sean Scott, Amazon says that it is set to start delivering to select customers in these markets as part of the company’s continuing “field test” rollout. It has also been delivering packages in Snohomish County, Washington, and the Irvine-area of California.
“We’re thrilled to bring Amazon Scout to two new communities,” Scott writes. “Adding Atlanta and Franklin to our existing operations gives Scout devices the opportunity to operate in varied neighborhoods with different climates than they operate in today. Amazon also has a significant presence in these areas through our corporate offices and logistics facilities. And, we know they are both great places to find world-class talent that can help us continue inventing for customers.”
The Amazon Scout robot deliveries works, from a customer perspective, much like regular Amazon deliveries. There’s no special Amazon Robot Prime service to sign up for. Customers in the select trial areas just place orders like they normally would with the same Same-Day, One-Day, and Two-Day shipping for Prime members. The delivery robot then autonomously tracks a path to your home to deliver your package. Because the delivery bots are still in testing, your Amazon Scout robot will be accompanied initially by an Amazon Scout Ambassador.
Amazon isn’t the only company creating similar cooler-sized autonomous delivery robots. Other companies such as Starship Technologies are also putting rival technologies through their paces around the world. However, while Amazon is still a relative newcomer in this domain, its huge retail empire and delivery infrastructure gives it a massive leg-up in terms of being able to deploy this tech on a massive scale.
“Expanding our field test to Atlanta and Franklin is one of the many steps forward for this new delivery system and on our path to net-zero carbon by 2040,” Scott notes in the Amazon blog. “During a time when so many of our customers rely on us to get what they need, bringing Scout to these new locations supplements our transportation network and increases our capacity to deliver what our customers want: great selection, low prices, and fast shipping speeds.”
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