Amazon Debuts Autonomous Delivery Robot

Amazon has a brand-new product that will deliver packages right to consumers’ doors. Named Scout, it’s a robot on six wheels about the size of a small cooler, the retail giant said in a blog post on Wednesday (Jan. 23).

“At Amazon, we continually invest in new technologies to benefit customers. We’ve been hard at work developing a new, fully-electric delivery system – Amazon Scout – designed to safely get packages to customers using autonomous delivery devices,” the company said. “These devices were created by Amazon, are the size of a small cooler and roll along sidewalks at a walking pace. Starting today, these devices will begin delivering packages to customers in a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington.”

The company said it will start with six Scouts working Monday through Friday, in the daylight. The robots will follow their routes autonomously, but at least for a while they’ll be accompanied by an Amazon employee.

“We developed Amazon Scout at our research and development lab in Seattle, ensuring the devices can safely and efficiently navigate around pets, pedestrians and anything else in their path,” the company said.

Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers said he is excited to welcome Amazon into the area.

“We are delighted to welcome Amazon Scout into our community,” he stated. “Similar to Amazon, we are always looking for new ways to better deliver service to our residents. From the latest Amazon innovation to cutting-edge technology, Snohomish County is a great place for entrepreneurial creativity.”

Amazon said it hopes Scout can “provide even more sustainability and convenience to customer deliveries.”

Earlier this month, Amazon passed Microsoft as the largest company by market value, according to reports. Amazon was worth about $8 billion more than Microsoft, at $799 billion to Microsoft’s $791 billion. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, passed Apple and was in third place with about $747 billion. Apple, which has faced woes recently amid sluggish sales, was in fourth place with $699 billion.