Amazon is using a new, AI-based solution called Vision-Assisted Package Retrieval (VAPR) to reduce the time and effort required for delivery drivers to retrieve packages from their vans. Is it a game-changer, or just more AI VAPR-ware?
Somewhat lost in the hype surrounding Tesla's “We, Robot” event on 10/10 was the press release of AI from Amazon promising to improve the lives of people who use it today, rather than two years from now.
VAPR makes the lives of Amazon delivery drivers easier by automatically identifying packages to be delivered to a specific stop. The system then generates a green “O” for all packages to be delivered to that stop, and a red “X” for all other packages. When the driver picks up all the “correct” packages, the VAPR delivers an audible prompt to help ensure no packages are left behind.
Cameras + lasers = easy delivery
I'd like to think the system sounds like, “Good delivery driver, you got the item! Who is a good delivery driver? He is there good delivery driver!”
The VAPR system eliminates the need for delivery drivers to use the phone during delivery. Because of this, Amazon says its drivers won't have to spend time sorting packages by stopping, reading labels, or checking identifiers like a customer's name or address to make sure they have the right packages between stops. Instead they will just ask for the green light, take the packages, and go.
The Amazon Transportation team says it spent hundreds of hours testing VAPR in the field with its drivers to test their early assumptions about the assistance system's capabilities. In early tests, Amazon reduced the perceived physical and mental effort of its drivers by 67%, and more than 30 minutes were saved per route.
VAPR will be installed in 1,000 new Amazon electric delivery vans immediately, with plans to expand the system if those results continue to hold.
With more than 390,000 Amazon delivery drivers worldwide and more than 100,000 Amazon fleet vans delivering millions of packages every day, technologies like VAPR promise to save time and effort on an incredible scale.
Electrek's Take
As a humble and hardworking person, I want to celebrate Amazon for making the lives of its drivers easier. That said, Amazon's push for efficiency has led to allegations that it abuses its workers.
The lawsuits against the online shopping giant say that “difficult work rates” and “detailed tracking” make it nearly impossible for employees to detour to use the restroom. As a result, trash cans at Amazon fulfillment centers (where drivers start and end trips) are “regularly overflowing” with bottles of urine discarded by employees, according to the lawsuit. It's a topic we covered in the original HEP-isode of the Heavy Equipment Podcast, which I've included (below) out of curiosity, so enjoy that.
Here's hoping Amazon uses those extra 30 minutes 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 | PHOTOS: Amazon, in the Chain Store Age; Forbes.
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