Amazon Drivers Could Be Wearing AR Glasses With a Built-In Display Next Year (theverge.com) 52
Amazon is developing augmented-reality glasses with a full-color display, microphone, speakers, and camera, aiming for consumer release in 2026-27. It's also expected to release a separate version for delivery drivers, with a bulkier build and built-in navigation display to streamline package drop-offs. "Amazon initially plans on making 100,000 units of the glasses for delivery drivers, called 'Amelia' internally," reports The Verge, citing a report from The Information (paywalled).. "Reuters reported on the glasses last year, saying they would offer drivers 'turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen.'"
Well now ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Won't that be a useful extra distraction for drivers to have to contend with?
I'd imagine this won't filter out to many European nations (including the UK) particularly quickly, because local laws tend to prize the ability of drivers to actually pay attention to the road when they're driving, which is why there are laws about phone use behind the wheel. This is not unrelated to why we don't particularly trust fully autonomous driving modes on cars - European roads, particular off motorway/autoroute/autostra
Re:Well now ... (Score:5, Interesting)
This won't be about helping the driver, it'll be about monitoring them, and gathering data for AI.
Did they run the stop sign before the accident? Did they check the Amazon driver app 12 times per hour as contractually required? Does their gaze linger on men or women? What is the demography of the area they're driving through? etc
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It's definitely about the data streams, but desensitizing people to AR glasses would be a nice side-effect as well. Get people used to seeing an Amazon driver with the spy gear every day, and it might seem less weird when they see it in other contexts.
The drivers are a captive market for AR, they can be forced to where the glasses where consumers would have to be lured into wearing them. It wouldn't surprise me if these glasses did little or nothing to help the drivers in their job, but we see Amazon mandat
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+1
Re:Well now ... (Score:5, Informative)
If I understood it correctly from all I've read about it, the glasses aren't meant to assist driving. They (at least reportedly) should help them when carrying packages from the vehicle to the recipients' hands. Amazon is also aiming at replacing the handhelds that drivers currently use with these glasses.
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Assist or not, images and text flickering away in even peripheral vision would be a major driving distraction. I can't imagine them ever getting approval here in the UK or in the EU not to mention also due to privacy monitoring concerns.
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If I understood it correctly from all I've read about it, the glasses aren't meant to assist driving.
If they don't assist in driving, then they pose at least a substantial risk of distracting from driving. Wearing them while driving should be banned in ALL jurisdictions. This would have the added benefit of disabusing Amazon of the notion that they are in any sense above the law.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The current progress line in military piloting is Dashboard > Heads Up Display > Helmet Mounted Display.
On the road cars are already at HUD stage. There are plenty of cars that project a HUD in driver's field of vision ahead of the driver. This would be a natural extension of that, mounted directly to the head of the driver.
I see zero reasons why this would be banned when HUDs are allowed everywhere, unless it does some illegal distraction on the road. Which is unlikely.
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The pilot's HUD also keeps him from harm by warning for attacks.
The Amazon glasses are purely to get more value out of the driver's time.
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But putting this help in a device that's to be worn while also driving a vehicle is irresponsible and will at some point be shot down by authorities.
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As you correctly guessed, I prefer people engage their thinking when they read most posts. I find that ideal.
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Won't that be a useful extra distraction for drivers to have to contend with?
With the way delivery drivers are treated now, I would expect these glasses will start flashing red directly in their eyes if they miss a machine predicted delivery time by so much as a millisecond, even if there is an unforeseen accident or road construction. I somehow see this leading to lawsuits within a few short weeks of launch, and a ban not long after that for augmented reality glasses while driving.
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How do the laws work there? Here in the USA they are about using a non built in device while driving, so if you are doing navigation on your phone in your hand that's illegal but if you are doing navigation on the built in vehicle system, or via android auto or apple carplay on the built in screen, it's legal. (Distracted driving is still illegal, but it's much harder to prove than when a person had their phone in their hand.)
If the person is not touching controls on the glasses then it wouldn't be automati
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They do typically lock out some functionality while the vehicle is in motion, but I also do agree with you. There should be physical controls for anything which the driver needs to use while the vehicle is in motion, and specifically buttons or switches or knobs and not a touchpad, which is at least as distracting as touching the screen if not moreso.
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Turn by turn directions on a display are legal pretty much everywhere, so long as you're not holding that display in your hands. A heads up display is probably safer. Fancy cars have them for exactly that reason.
This just in... (Score:5, Interesting)
GIant Consumer Corporation wants to make their already over-watched and over-worked employees even more efficient by removing any sort of choice from their daily work life.
:(
I guess if any company were to do this, Amazon makes the most sense as they already view their employees like robots. No more guess work! Also, don't forget to remove the glasses when you pee into the bottle or now they'll know you actually took that toilet break anyway. Though I bet if you remove the glasses they know that too.
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Go with automated vehicles, robots, and drones for doorstep deliveries. It eliminates the issues of being "over-watched and over-worked" while reducing community-related concerns.
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Turn-by-turn using eyewear? (Score:4, Interesting)
Is this legal in the US? The driver receiving "turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen.'" using AR glasses.
Won't that occlude some part of the driver's view of the windshield?
Re:Turn-by-turn using eyewear? (Score:5, Informative)
It's see through.
Windshield HUD seems a lot more comfortable though.
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Is this legal in the US? The driver receiving "turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen.'" using AR glasses.
Won't that occlude some part of the driver's view of the windshield?
You should know by now in the Corporate States of America, anything the corporations want to do is totally legal and they shouldn't have to pay any tax on it.
Things like laws and taxes are for the little people, like you.
Good (Score:5, Funny)
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Ah yes. The good old UPS three point shot.
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If it only was always so easy. But cities can be messy. I know some drivers and very often they have a really hard time finding the correct delivery recipients.
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If it only was always so easy. But cities can be messy. I know some drivers and very often they have a really hard time finding the correct delivery recipients.
Well, then the glasses will likely help.
I'll Take That Bet (Score:1)
Short!
Sounds dangerous (Score:1)
Sounds like dangerous distractions and also the possibility of malfunction such as a suspended or laggy display is concerning.
A Jaywalker's nightmare (Score:1)
You can't even cross the street now without some Carmageddon maniac, imagine with augmented reality.
Won't somebody think of the children?
Foo you, pay me (Score:1)
Is Amazon fitting the bill for higher insurance rates? Because all this will do is introduce more distractions and more risk and all of us will have to pay for their experiment in the end.
It is not wrong to want to be compensated for involuntarily being a part of Amazons experiment!
the DSP pays for that but this pushes them to join (Score:2)
the DSP pays for that but this pushes them to joint employers so going union can be easier.
Who pays the insurance for Amazon's trucks? (Score:2)
This question surprised me.
Before we tackle the unlikely possibility that this raises insurance rates, your question makes me realize there's another question you might want to try to answer first:
Who do you think currently pays for the insurance on Amazon's vehicles?
And another: do you think that by Amazon making the choice to deploy an additional piece of driver hardware, the insurance-premium-paying party in the above question, would change?
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It's not just a simple answer like you trying to make it out to be. Amazon pays for some of that I am sure, but also contractors who own their own fleets have to pay for their own insurance plus all of who pays varies between states. Insurance is a state level thing.
Insurance is also all about shared risk. If a company makes something that gets added to a car that increases accidents or makes an increased risk of accidents this will cause rates to be adjusted to make up for the losses AND the increased po
Driver more not Diver less (Score:2)
Before GPS systems were common you would have actually pre-planed your routes using PAPER map books. We learned our routes and shortcuts by just by driving them and in turn doing so made our deliveries faster. We learned short cuts and ways around traffic snarls this way too.
Spoon feeding turn by turns to someone is likely to have the opposite effect. Because they will have less of a need in learning landmarks and street names and what happens when those systems take a dump? You will be screwed because you
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Before GPS systems were common you would have actually pre-planed your routes using PAPER map books. We learned our routes and shortcuts by just by driving them [...] Spoon feeding turn by turns to someone is likely to have the opposite effect.
Before GPS systems were common, internet map systems like Mapquest were common, and people would look up directions online and then print turn by turn directions which they would then read while driving. Before GPS systems were common in cars, they were common in UPS trucks, which spoon fed drivers turn by turn directions optimized to reduce left turns via GPS-enabled MDT.
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How did that score a 3? I said before gps and then you are talking about GPS-enabled devices?
Map Books for delivery drivers was the only option before consumer GPS system existed.
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How did that score a 3?
The People are fickle.
I said before gps and then you are talking about GPS-enabled devices?
You said "Before GPS systems were common" which is not, my fine friend, the same thing as "before gps".
Map Books for delivery drivers was the only option before consumer GPS system existed.
There were delivery tracking systems with mapping and MDTs. Drivers could report their locations via text messaging (using the two-way pager network, not cellular yet) and get back directions. But also there was quite a significant period before consumer GPS was affordable enough to be "common", but where it was being used by business. While you could pick up a pretty nice last-year's
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Thanks for the more detailed reply.
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Also for a small company I doubt these type of systems were remotely affordable.
GREAT idea (Score:2)
Wagie, wagie (Score:2)
Put on the specs, obey the pagie.
Glowing screens before your eyes,
Voices whisper hums and lies.
Parcels beep their numbered fate,
The pace is timed, your path ornate.
The chains are soft, the leash is sleek,
A velvet yoke upon the meek.
Ten thousand doors, ten thousand gates,
But none are yours; you shift the weights.
The lenses gleam, the data streams,
Efficiency devours dreams.
Yet somewhere past that tinted glass,
A question flickers, sharp as brass:
If power shrinks to fit
pity (Score:2)
I pity those poor people. But, I guess AR glasses is better than looking at a phone in your lap.
Illegal in my state. (Score:3)