US tech giant Amazon has unveiled new artificial intelligence-equipped delivery vans that reduce drivers’ efforts by spotlighting which packages to deliver. The announcement comes as demand for e-commerce ramps up.
Amazon displayed the electric vans — a first for the firm — on Wednesday at its fulfillment center in Nashville, Tennessee.
They come equipped with a new AI-powered solution called Vision-Assisted Package Retrieval, or VAPR .
Amazon says once a van arrives at a delivery location VAPR automatically projects a green “O” on all the packages to be delivered there and a red “X” on the rest.
The firm says field tests of the system showed delivery drivers could save over 30 minutes per day. It plans to begin deploying the vans by early 2025, starting in the United States.
Amazon also showed the inside of the fulfillment center, where more than 6,000 robots were operating.
Fully autonomous robots were adeptly navigating their surroundings, avoiding workers and objects while transporting goods.
Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics, says, “I think those that frame their relationship of people and machines working together have a huge advantage in terms of productivity and increase in safety for people.”
Amazon’s move comes as more companies are stepping up efforts to introduce industrial robots in their operations, accelerating the speed of AI technological innovation.