Amazon‘s New Era of Robotic Deliveries
In an ambitious leap towards futuristic delivery solutions, Amazon is ramping up its efforts to integrate humanoid robots into its delivery operations. The tech giant has embarked on a testing phase aimed at deploying robots capable of delivering packages directly to customers’ doorsteps. These robots are designed to travel in the back of Rivian electric delivery vehicles, alighting at the delivery point to hand over packages.
Amazon’s fleet already includes over 20,000 Rivian vehicles, with plans to expand this number to 100,000 in the coming years. While deliveries are currently conducted by human operators, Amazon’s vision for the future is to assign these tasks to robots.
At a dedicated test facility in San Francisco, these robots are being put through their paces on obstacle courses that replicate real-world environments. The testing involves scenarios where robots must exit delivery vehicles and navigate to homes to deliver packages. Among the various robotic models under consideration, only the robot developed by China-based Unitree has been confirmed thus far.
Amazon’s experience with robotics is not new; the company has been utilizing autonomous systems within its warehouses for years. Previously, humanoid robots from Agility Robotics were employed, albeit in controlled indoor environments. The current objective is to extend their functionality to outdoor settings.
For the software that controls these robots, Amazon is reportedly developing a specialized system leveraging the DeepSeek-VL2 and Qwen models, which originate from China-based Alibaba. Although the tests are predominantly conducted indoors at present, the prospect of these robots hitting the streets seems imminent.
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