Amazon may have designs on ditching more than half a billion jobs in favour of robots, but its new delivery glasses will go a long way to augmenting the remaining staff. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about the smart eyewear, but it is the first time we’ve seen Amazon say something official on the subject.
The ‘delivery glasses’ — that seems to be the only name the online retailer has given them — are designed to “help Delivery Associates (DAs) identify hazards, seamlessly navigate to customers’ doorsteps, and improve customer deliveries.” If you’re interested in how that works in practice, well, Amazon has shown a little of what it’s like behind the lenses.
Special delivery glasses
Previously known as Project Jayhawk (Amazon currently has projects Blue Jay and Eluna in the works), the glasses are supposed to help package handlers — the company calls them Delivery Associates — to scan packages, navigate on foot to a destination, and sort out proof of delivery. The headwear does this without a smartphone, making it one of the practical applications of smart glasses that makes sense beyond advertising and entertainment.
Amazon demoed its delivery glasses scanning packages, with the results appearing in the heads-up display. It should, in theory, be harder to deliver the incorrect parcel this way. They’ll also automatically switch on when a driver stops, showing turn-by-turn directions to get to the recipient’s door. This uses Amazon’s “geospatial technology to guide drivers to the exact delivery location without having to check their phone.” It should also shave a few minutes off the average delivery. Customers likely won’t notice, but Amazon probably will.
The headwear isn’t the only component. There’s a controller built into the vest that delivery drivers wear, as well as a swappable battery, and an emergency button that summons assistance when events take a turn south. The glasses also support prescriptions, in case the driver needs corrective lenses to see where they’re going.
There’s no pricing for these. Being an internal product, Amazon presumably makes them to order for staff. Whether said staff are being charged for them isn’t known, but hopefully that’s not the case. The new delivery glasses are mostly of interest now because Amazon is said to have a commercial version of these in the works, too. Whether they’ll require strap-on accessories and what functions the unnamed (and unconfirmed) glasses will have isn’t known, but these offer clues in that direction.
