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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Scout

Amazon Starts Testing Autonomous Delivery Bot Scout in California

Scout, Amazon’s autonomous wheeled delivery bot, will start delivering packages today in Irvine, California, according to a blog post published by Amazon.

Scout bots will operate “Monday through Friday, during daylight hours,” according to the blog post. Customers in Irvine will order their packages as normal, including options for same-day delivery for Prime members. The cooler-sized, six-wheeled bots will autonomously follow their delivery route and, for now at least, be accompanied by a human being who can take over in the event of a problem.

Back in January, when Scout debuted near Amazon’s Washington State headquarters, my colleague Chris Albrecht noted that, “If Scout’s trial proves successful, Amazon’s involvement in the space will certainly light a fire under the existing competition and accelerate robot delivery.”

Today’s post from Amazon didn’t specifically mention food delivery, but it’s a realm in which Amazon operates and where, if Scout does indeed prove successful, the Seattle giant would certainly give the competition something to worry about.

And there’s plenty of competition to go around. Postmates’ Serve bot already, eh, serves Los Angeles, Miami, NYC, Chicago, and Phoenix. Kiwi and Starship are available on a growing number of college campuses, and Kiwi also just expanded its program to the city of Sacramento. Pepsi, too, has bots on campus in the form of an autonomous roving device by San Francisco-based company Robby.

Of course, both campuses and city streets contain obstacles for bots, which Amazon said in its blog post it has been testing Scout against for some time: “All the while, the devices have safely and autonomously navigated the many obstacles you find in residential neighborhoods—trashcans, skateboards, lawn chairs, the occasional snow blower, and more.”

Now they have to navigate an even tougher test than a snow blower: the human beings who will be both interacting with the bots as they accept packages and getting used to seeing the wheeled devices roving about the block. How that reception goes will give us a good idea of where Scout is headed — literally and figuratively — in the near future.

Will Amazon’s Scout Help Accelerate Robot Delivery?

Amazon unveiled Scout, its own li’l rover delivery robot via a corporate blog post today. Details are scant, but the cooler-sized, six-wheeled bot will make its debut near Amazon’s (original) HQ in Snohomish County, Washington.

The company’s announcement didn’t mention food or groceries, only saying Scout is “designed to safely get packages to customers using autonomous delivery devices.” But it’s not hard to imagine the rover bot transporting snacks, drinks and possibly even restaurant delivery (if sufficiently temperature controlled).

We don’t know exactly where in Snohomish county Scout is available, or how many robots will be in the initial fleet. Customers just place their Amazon order as they normally would, select a delivery range including “fast” (their word) and same day, and the package will arrive either by delivery partner or by Scout.

Though Scout is autonomous and will eventually roam the streets on its own, it will initially only run during daylight hours and will have a human Amazon handler accompanying it.

We’re not even done with January and it’s already shaping up to be a watershed year for delivery robots. In just this month:

And that doesn’t even include the forthcoming Postmates robot, “Serve”, or the Kiwi bots already making deliveries in Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, or Marble’s robot delivery rolling out across Texas.

If Scout’s trial proves successful, Amazon’s involvement in the space will certainly light a fire under the existing competition and accelerate robot delivery . And it looks like Amazon is putting some muscle behind the program. The Seattle Times pointed out, there are 21 job openings at Amazon related to Scout.

What will be exciting to watch with Scout is how this integrates into Amazon’s overall logistical arsenal. The company is obsessed with efficiency (and getting you to buy more stuff). It’s easy to see why Amazon wants in on delivery robots. Robots can (eventually) scurry around 24 hours a day delivering just about any type of package. They don’t take breaks, and if Bezo’s and company is smart, they’ll follow the Woowa Bros. approach and have these delivery bots do double duty and take away any empty amazon boxes from your home.

In addition to Amazon’s logistical genius, the other thing going for Amazon, which in turn could push the entire robot delivery sector forward, is clout. A company of Amazon’s size has a lot more political muscle than a startup in dealing with city and state lawmakers to get robot-friendly regulations passed.

Of course, as with any robot news, there will be questions of what workers are displaced, and what that means for society as a whole. It’s a topic (among many) we’ll actually be tackling at our upcoming Articulate conference in San Francisco on April 16. It’s a one-day summit that will explore what’s happening with food robots and automation, and where it’s all heading. Get your tickets now!