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Businesses The Almighty Buck Transportation

Amazon Might Be Planning To Use Driverless Cars for Delivery (fortune.com) 121

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
Amazon could be eyeing driverless car technology as a way to get items to people's doors faster, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. From an article: It seems nearly every tech and auto giant are now evaluating autonomous vehicle technology. Google-owner Alphabet recently spun out its self-driving car unit, Waymo, into its own subsidiary. Apple was just granted a license in California to test autonomous vehicles. Ford and General Motors are also doubling down on creating autonomous vehicles. Amazon's ambitions, however, may not be to actually build these cars. Instead, the e-commerce giant has a team of around a dozen employees thinking of ways to potentially use the nascent technology to expand its own retail and logistics operations. Operating fleets of driverless trucks to ship items bought from its marketplace could help lower costs for the company.
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Amazon Might Be Planning To Use Driverless Cars for Delivery More

Amazon Might Be Planning To Use Driverless Cars for Delivery

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  • Cause for concern (Score:5, Funny)

    by DickBreath ( 207180 ) on Monday April 24, 2017 @01:42PM (#54293263) Homepage
    It is okay if Amazon's cars are driverless . . .

    . . . as long as they are also self-driving.

    • No, just make them drone cars, and then outsource the driving. Make it an online game: "Get this car from here to here as fast as possible"

      What could go wrong?

      • sadly people would probably pay to play that... free shipping if you don't mind a 14 year old remotely driving a car through your lawn grand theft auto style

      • Add some electrode brain zapping if Player acts maliciously and you are done! But then software would have to assess if the route is malicious or not... though a few lobotomies as example for the other workers, I mean, Players, would be optimum to omit software assessment and force bona fide on the Gamers. [[Videogames]t->oo = [Work]t->oo = ...].

  • and all of the out of work trucks well just hold up the auto drive cars to get food and other stuff that they need.

  • There's the question of how the car/truck is going to stop being targeted for theft. I am sure that these cars would be programmed to stop when people are standing in their way -- which would be a perfect way to steal delivery goods. Just have a group of people surround the car/truck at a stop light, and then you pretty much own a bunch of new toys from Amazon. I'll believe it when I see it, I guess.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Fwipp ( 1473271 )

      Presumably they can use one of the many cameras on the device to record the criminals and report them to law enforcement. In this sense, they're less vulnerable than any human-driven truck without a camera.

      It's easy to mug me when I'm walking down the sidewalk, but most people don't do it.

    • If that's a concern, why not just drop any Amazon markings? At that point, the car would be indistinguishable from any other self-driving car on the road. It's possible that self-driving cars in general may become targets, but as another poster has already pointed out, the fact that they're pretty much guaranteed to record the crime in great detail will act as a deterrent for most would-be thieves, I should think.

    • What is stopping someone from robbing a human driven UPS truck with the same tactic?
  • Once you have fully operational self-driving cars, robots will roam up and down the hallways of apartment complexes to deliver packages. Like the food dispenser robots in Judge Dredd (Stallone).

  • No drivers, just deliver-people? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lionchild ( 581331 ) on Monday April 24, 2017 @01:59PM (#54293379) Journal

    So, Amazon will use driverless cars to deliver goods. How do you suppose those goods get from the car, to the 3rd floor apartment, or in onto the porch of the house, or if there are special instructions, through the gate and onto the step at the back door? A drone based in the vehicle? I think you're going to have to have someone involved there to get the package to where it needs to go.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ColdSam ( 884768 )

      There are countless ways to solve this. It's a good thing you're not in charge of the project, not that you're even putting any effort into solving your own hypothetical problems.

      The easiest and most obvious is that the vehicles will just stop outside of the house/apartment and the person will walk to the street and unlock the package with a phone.

      • Easiest...for Amazon. Not for the customer. I would not order from Amazon if they did this. So I don't think it's as easy as you're trying to make it out to be.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ColdSam ( 884768 )

          Then you will be in the 1% of people who would rather pay $5 for shipping rather than walk 20 ft from the door to the curb and have no charge.

          Having an Amazon locker right outside your front door is a vastly superior option for most people than what they are currently doing. There will always be exceptions, but just expect to pay extra to be in that tiny minority.

          • Re:No drivers, just deliver-people? (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Stolovaya ( 1019922 ) <skingiii.gmail@com> on Monday April 24, 2017 @03:32PM (#54294001)

            Why would I pay that? With Prime, I already pay no shipping. Why would I pay $5 more for a service I'm already getting? You're also vastly underestimating the convenience factor.

            An Amazon locker? Why would I have one? Amazon already delivers to my doorstep.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by ColdSam ( 884768 )

              So you have the odd belief that nothing ever changes? That Amazon won't ever change the terms of its shipping policies? That seems like a bad position to hold if you have any knowledge of history (or sense of the passage of time)?

              Amazon is always trying to lower its shipping costs and will make policy changes that reduce costs while keeping its most profitable customers. It is unclear how they will change pricing, whether it is raising the cost of prime, increasing minimum orders, or providing other incenti

              • Nice movement of the goalpost. My initial response is that this isn't as easy as you were making it out to be. Now you're accusing me of holding the idea of "nothing ever changes". So I'm not even going to respond to your first line.

                Amazon could make the change. But then someone could along and offer the traditional "shipping-and-deliver-to-your-door" for the same price that they offer it today. That's great if Amazon wants to lower shipping costs. But you haven't really made a case why that would involve

                • Re: (Score:1)

                  by ColdSam ( 884768 )

                  Nice movement of the goalpost. My initial response is that this isn't as easy as you were making it out to be. Now you're accusing me of holding the idea of "nothing ever changes". So I'm not even going to respond to your first line.

                  I never said it was easy, just easiest (and most obvious) of all the options. All solutions are hard or everyone else would have done them already. Yes, I will accuse you again of the idea "nothing ever changes" because you can't seem to wrap your head around the concept that once much cheaper shipping options are available that will change how shipping is priced. Yet you continue to claim, "I like it just the way it is, so this will never work."

                  Amazon could make the change. But then someone could along and offer the traditional "shipping-and-deliver-to-your-door" for the same price that they offer it today.

                  Hardly. There is currently nobody who can beat Amazon on shipp

                  • Nice movement of the goalpost. My initial response is that this isn't as easy as you were making it out to be. Now you're accusing me of holding the idea of "nothing ever changes". So I'm not even going to respond to your first line.

                    I never said it was easy, just easiest (and most obvious) of all the options. All solutions are hard or everyone else would have done them already. Yes, I will accuse you again of the idea "nothing ever changes" because you can't seem to wrap your head around the concept that once much cheaper shipping options are available that will change how shipping is priced. Yet you continue to claim, "I like it just the way it is, so this will never work."

                    I think you're having problems with wrapping your head around why a customer would pay more for a more money for an inconvenient option, when the cost of that shipment is lower from the automation. You're making gigantic assumptions, so I don't think this conversation is really going anywhere. I'm telling you it's is not an easy answer. You're assuming that means that I think that means there are no and never will be any other options. You're having a really hard time with reading comprehension.

                    Amazon could make the change. But then someone could along and offer the traditional "shipping-and-deliver-to-your-door" for the same price that they offer it today.

                    Hardly. There is currently nobody who can beat Amazon on shipping costs. When they have a driverless mobile locker system that is significantly cheaper, who do you think will step in and be able to beat Amazon on price of goods and shipping costs? You're delusional, Amazon will eat their lunch.

                    I don't have

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )

                      I think you're having problems with wrapping your head around why a customer would pay more for a more money for an inconvenient option, when the cost of that shipment is lower from the automation. You're making gigantic assumptions, so I don't think this conversation is really going anywhere.

                      "pay more for a more money for an inconvenient option" What in God's holy name are you blathering about? If you're asking why people would pay more to have a package dropped on their porch than walk 20 feet to pick it up at the street. I don't know, that's what you're claiming. I'm saying the mobile locker concept is more secure, more reliable and cheaper. You'll have to defend your own words, not keep intentionally distorting mine.

                      I don't have to be home now for Amazon. With your system, I'd have to home. With the current system, I can just answer my door. With your system, there is more work involved with the customer. You have made no case for how yours is an easier solution for customer.

                      You don't have to be home? So you just let Amazon packages pile up on your p

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )
                      Once again. If you are NEVER home, why are you having packages delivered there! They will just pile up uselessly on your porch. Sheesh.

            • Why would I pay that? With Prime, I already pay no shipping.

              Why would I pay to check my luggage? That's included with my ticket.

              • That doesn't make sense. You paid to check your luggage as part of your ticket...and then you pay an extra fee to check your luggage? Some airlines don't check any bags for free and you are charged. Do you want to show me an airline that double-dips like this (charges you to check luggage in the price of the ticket and then charges again)?

                • Are you too young to remember what flying was like fifteen years ago or are you just obtuse?

                  • I'm talking about today, so what point are you trying to make?

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )
                      So the answer is "just obtuse" then.

                    • No, you're just communicating poorly.

                    • Who is communicating poorly? You can't even seem to keep track of who you're talking to.
                    • I'm keeping track just fine. Why do you say that?

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )

                      "communicating poorly" == "not explaining as if I were a 5 year old"

                      Apparently.

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )

                      Oh I don't know. I guess I should have just explained my analogy to airline baggage fees more clearly. Apparently I was just "communicating poorly" when I did that.

                    • No, your concept is just moronic. I'll try one more time before I give up.

                      With a Prime membership, I don't pay any further shipping charges for two-day shipping. Zero. No dollars. Amazon will deliver the package to my door, whether I'm home or not (there is an argument that I'm paying for shipping by buying the Prime membership, but I guess it comes down to how much one uses it, but it's a flat rate, so really depends on the person).

                      You said:

                      Then you will be in the 1% of people who would rather pay $5 for shipping rather than walk 20 ft from the door to the curb and have no charge.

                      Amazon would make the switch as a cost-cutting strategy, so t

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )

                      Your point appears to be that, I can pay $5 more for driverless shipping, but I have to fetch the package from the vehicle.

                      Is English not your first language? Or even your third? That is nowhere near my point.

                      My point is that you're an idiot. More importantly an obnoxious idiot. If you were a polite idiot I would respond kindly to you. You have not understood ANY part of this conversation. Contrast that with Silver... who understood the whole point of my argument without having it spoon fed to him/her, yet you continue to be both obtuse and obnoxious.

                    • Then don't write stupid shit like this in the future:

                      Then you will be in the 1% of people who would rather pay $5 for shipping rather than walk 20 ft from the door to the curb and have no charge.

                      Makes you look like an absolute moron.

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )
                      Yet you are the moron who reads that as someone will have to pay $5 to pick it up from the curb. Do you honestly not see the word "RATHER" in there. You know, like it is either this OR that? You really need to find smarter friends; people who will walk you through simple concepts like boolean logic.

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )
                      I will grant you that your absolute confidence in your moronic opinion made me go look up the word "rather," in case there was an archaic or obscure meaning of the word that I was missing. But no, there isn't, you're just an idiot who can't read a simple sentence.

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )
                      Still puzzling out the difference between the Boolean operators AND and OR? I expect you'll choose to remain ignorant RATHER THAN educate yourself. Oh well.
                    • The current, human delivery is going to cost more in the future you fucking idiot. Today it is free, but it won't always be that way.

                      Some things cost more or less today than they did in the past. You already understand this concept, you just aren't applying it to this subject because you're dumb.

                    • You haven't provided any information on why this would be the case. You continually miss the entire point. I'll repeat it for you since you're having a very difficult time grasping it (it's not a terribly hard concept).

                      Amazon would make the switch since it saves money. If it costs Amazon less money, why would they charge more for it? If they do, they open things up for someone to do what they're already doing.

                      Try again, moron.

                    • Re: (Score:1)

                      by ColdSam ( 884768 )
                      Jesus. Are you just trolling? No-one could be this stupid.

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by ColdSam ( 884768 )
                Bingo!

      • Re:No drivers, just deliver-people? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by lionchild ( 581331 ) on Monday April 24, 2017 @03:32PM (#54293987) Journal

        The easiest and most obvious is that the vehicles will just stop outside of the house/apartment and the person will walk to the street and unlock the package with a phone.

        So, they will they only make deliveries when I'm home? Meaning the bulk of the fleet would operate after hours in the window from 6PM to 9PM, when people are home, but not yet in bed. I'm not sure this approach would work well for the average person with a 8AM to 5PM job.

        However, if they -do- deliver it when I plan to be home, nights, weekends, etc.. and I set the delivery time and they adhere to it, that could work.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by ColdSam ( 884768 )
          There will be many options and it will take some sorting out to find the right balance. Again, the most obvious solution is that trucks are loaded up with deliveries for a given area and you are alerted when your package is out for delivery. When you respond by saying that you are home, the truck will drive to your house in a few minutes and you will be alerted to come out and retrieve your package.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fedos ( 150319 )
          How will operating the fleet between 6 and 9 PM not work for people who work 8 AM - 5 PM? This system could actually make it less likely to have missed deliveries.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bmk67 ( 971394 )

        This doesn't solve for the extremely common case where the recipient isn't home to take delivery.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fedos ( 150319 )
          They could better work schedules around when people are home than they can with human drivers. They might actually eliminate the problem of the recipient not being home.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by ColdSam ( 884768 )
          If you're willing to pay more, you can continue to have humans do that for you. Or you could take the choice that almost everyone else will and choose the cheaper option that is far more reliable, convenient and secure. That is having the package delivered to the street outside your home and you opening the door and walking 20 feet to take it off the drone truck that's waiting patiently for you. I'm sure the existing drivers appreciate you subsidizing them in a nearly useless job.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fedos ( 150319 )
          Then the package will come to when you are home.
    • Some sort of air cannon would do the trick. Like the ones they use to shoot t-shirts at stadiums.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by ColdSam ( 884768 )
        These serve the dual purpose of defending against the mobs that will clearly be swarming these delivery vehicles.

    • A drone based in the vehicle sounds like the most likely solution to me. They could even have a few drones, depending.

      Presumably they'd have users set out small emitters that tell the drones where to leave the packages, perhaps a Beacon or similar device. They could also have a number of differently-sized drones to handle packages of different sizes, though large packages would probably still have to be delivered by hand, I'm sure they'd just offload those duties to UPS for FedEx or similar.

      I'm really, re

    • I would suspect that this will be used for some sort of priority same-hour delivery service where the receiver is actively waiting on site for the package, similar to what they planned for their drones:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXo_d6tNWuY

      Like in the video you're waiting and get a text message or app alert saying the car is a couple of minutes out, go get ready to meet it on the street. Once it's there, they'll probably have some sort of array of boxes on the rear of the vehicle like at the Amazon dr

  • Of course they are (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24, 2017 @02:01PM (#54293389)

    Anyone who owns a delivery or livery fleet is looking at the possibility long term. I suspect regulations and edge cases will delay this to at least 2030 but eventually this will come. In Amazon's case I'm sure it will also involve a mini robot that will take the package from the truck to the door. Probably several of them at once so it can circle back and pick up some.

    I expect those same mini robot's to arrive much sooner, as they can be used in the warehouse and are being used right now. Expect the vast number of people employed in their warehouses to drop 90% (or at least the number of employees per package to drop that amount - the way amazon keeps growing year to year the new warehouses will offset that. Forget about WalMart, amazon is the small *and* large town job destroyer.)

  • So... (Score:1)

    by hbean ( 144582 )
    How long until the average person realizes that it's robots taking the jobs not the Mexicans/immigrants. And then the problem becomes what can we build a wall around to stop them?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ColdSam ( 884768 )
      We do what we've always done. Pit the "Mexicans" and the robots against each other and let them fight it out so we can feel superior.

  • The first time they run into my electronic gate on the property, there will be trouble.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      You only have a gate on your property? How did it get past the gate and the guard at the entrance to the subdivision let alone the gate at the end of the driveway.

      Yes gate in my gated community, I dont trust these rich fuckers, and it helps keep the asshole retired guys on the HOA board off my fucking lawn and away from the house.

      • Umm no, a gate is not the only thing. 200 acres, barbwire, posted no trespassing signs at the required 100 ft. intervals. You know, the prerequisite of "If you are not invited I can legally shoot your ass".

  • Than their current delivery people. Leaving my package by the road? YOu lazy moron in a rusted out minivan, walk that thing to the door and press the doorbell button.

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