Amazon's Scout Robot Stops Making Deliveries
Amazon has decided to shut down its Scout home delivery robot project, meaning the six-wheeled robot won't be making any more deliveries.
As Bloomberg reports(Opens in a new window), the Scout team is in the process of being disbanded and offered new jobs within Amazon wherever possible. Around 400 people were working on the project, but ultimately it seems the robot couldn't achieve the customer experience Amazon was hoping for.
As Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll explains, "During our Scout limited field test, we worked to create a unique delivery experience, but learned through feedback that there were aspects of the program that weren’t meeting customers’ needs." Those field tests were being carried out in Atlanta, Georgia and Franklin, Tennessee, as well as neighborhoods in Seattle.
Amazon first introduced Scout back in 2019. The little robot is roughly the same size as a small cooler, which limited the size of the packages it could carry. The field tests also required a human minder be present, but the hope was that Scout could eventually operate autonomously. Things were looking good as recently as last year when Amazon created a new Scout team full of engineers tasked with improving the robot's navigation skills, but clearly it wasn't enough.
The news of Scout's demise follows reports earlier this week that Amazon is discontinuing its kid-focused Glow smart display just a year after it launched. The company is still working on multiple transport and delivery projects, but the focus is on electric vehicles, drones, and Amazon's growing fleet of aircraft.
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