Amazon’s Delivery Robots Could Hit the Streets Sooner Than Expected

Amazon is moving deeper into robotics, and this time it’s not about warehouse automation.

The company is reportedly working on humanoid robots that could one day assist or even replace delivery drivers. These robots are being trained to exit Amazon’s Rivian electric vans and deliver packages directly to customers, essentially acting as mobile couriers.

Sources close to the project say Amazon has already set up a dedicated testing space in the U.S. known as a humanoid park. While Amazon is focused on the AI brains behind these bots, it is relying on outside companies to supply the physical robot bodies.

In San Francisco, a mock environment roughly the size of a neighborhood café is being used to run indoor obstacle courses. Amazon wants these robots to navigate stairs, curbs, and doorsteps. Basically, the same challenges human drivers deal with every day.

The vision is a tag team approach where a human drives the van while the robot handles some of the deliveries, cutting down route times and making the process more efficient. One robot has already been placed inside a Rivian van for test runs.

Amazon plans to take the robots out of controlled settings and into real neighborhoods once testing in the humanoid park wraps up. The goal is to prove these bots can perform consistently without human help.

Amazon is not new to humanoid robots. It has been experimenting in its warehouses with robots from Agility Robotics, a U.S. company known for developing robots designed to work alongside people.

Agility’s CEO Peggy Johnson previously said their Digit robot lets employees shift into supervisory roles, essentially managing the bots.

Meanwhile, Amazon is also investing in other autonomous delivery methods. The company got approval in the U.K. last year to fly delivery drones beyond a pilot’s visual range, a major step toward fully automated home delivery.

Between drones, robots, and self-driving vehicles under its Zoox brand, Amazon’s delivery future is shaping up to be almost entirely hands-free.