Amazon is investing heavily in AI-enhanced technology, including smart glasses, and an expansion of its in-house driver training academy to improve safety and delivery quality for independent contractors that deliver the company’s online orders to households.
A new $1.9 billion round of funding for the Delivery Service Partner program also aims to boost driver pay, in addition to providing artificial intelligence-powered tools that enhance safety.
In a blog post last month, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said it expects to add 30 delivery stations in North America set up with its Integrated Last Mile Driver Academy (iLMDA), where drivers for delivery service partners receive two-days of hands-on and immersive training and then get an extra day of on-road experience. The goal is to immerse drivers in as many different scenarios as possible to prepare them for delivering in real neighborhoods.
At the academy, drivers learn in traditional classroom settings and use virtual reality headsets in controlled environments. Future training expansions include driving simulators and mock towns, where drivers can make deliveries in different situations, such as houses, apartment complexes, and mail rooms.
Amazon introduced the Drivery Academy in 2022 and more than 140,000 drivers have gone through the program so far, according to the company.
Delivery fundamentals covered during the training include how to properly and safely leave a package, handle pet encounters, safely exit a vehicle, load and unload vans, inspect vehicles, as well as prevent slipping, tripping, falling during deliveries, and more. An important training module is the slip-trip-fall simulator, where drivers are secured in safety harnesses and attempt to walk on slippery surfaces to learn a marching technique that enables safe walking when ice or other slippery conditions are present.
Behind the wheel, trainees are taught hazard detection, how to avoid distracted or fatigued driving, proper driving techniques like signaling, following distance, sharing the road and other safety procedures.
The newest modality to the iLMDA is a driving simulator that recently was deployed at facilities in Denver; Glen Burnie, Maryland; and Seffner, Florida. The driving simulator provides students immediate feedback on performance and prompts critical defensive driving skills development in a safe, standardized virtual environment.
More than 6,000 newly onboarded drivers have participated in the enhanced virtual training, with a behind-the-wheel participation rate over 90%. Amazon anticipates 40 iLMDA sites will offer the EVOLVE experience by the end of 2026.
Drivers also get acclimated with Amazon’s electric delivery vehicles, including their regenerative braking systems, handling characteristics, and how to enter and exit them.
Glasses with heads-up display
Amazon has a global network of 4,500 small business owners that participate in its Delivery Service Partner program, delivering packages to residential addresses. Amazon announced in a Sept. 29 blog post that the $1.9 billion DSP investment will help independent carriers increase driver pay to a national average of nearly $23 per hour.
The money is also paying for a new self-directed AI digital assistant that will help DSPs analyze their delivery patterns, driver feedback and implement mapping improvements through natural language commands, saving hours of manual work for evaluating operational performance.
Amazon is using AI to enhance driver safety and delivery quality through smarter routing technology that analyzes traffic patterns and road conditions, improved mapping systems that automatically correct issues, and auto translation of customer delivery instructions across more than 30 languages. The safety investments are paying off, with a 32% decrease in behaviors like speeding and distracted driving in the past year, according to the company.
Smart delivery glasses are the latest sexy tool Amazon is developing to help delivery agents do their jobs. The wearable technology aims to help drivers identify hazards, easily navigate to customers’ doorsteps and improve deliveries.
Designed specifically for last-mile delivery agents, the glasses help scan packages, follow turn-by-turn walking directions, and capture proof of delivery — all without the use of their phone. The glasses create a hands-free experience, reducing the need to look between the phone, the package, and the surrounding area, according to another article on Amazon’s website.
The glasses leverage AI-powered sensing capabilities and computer vision, along with cameras to create a heads-up display that includes everything from navigation details to hazards. When drivers safely park at a delivery location, the glasses automatically activate and the agent is given their delivery information, directly in their field of view, starting with locating the packages inside their vehicles to the corresponding homes.
The display then offers walking turn-by-turn navigation to the delivery address, using Amazon’s geospatial technology to guide drivers to the exact delivery location without having to check their phone. If there are hazards, or a need to navigate complex environments like apartment buildings, the glasses will guide agents safely to their destination.
Amazon said hundreds of drivers tested early versions of the glasses and provided crucial feedback about everything from their comfort for all-day use to the clarity of the displays.
The glasses feature a small controller worn in the delivery vest that contains operational controls, a swappable battery ensuring all-day use, and a dedicated emergency button to reach emergency services along their routes if needed. The glasses also support prescription lenses along with transitional lenses that automatically adjust to light.
Amazon said it anticipates future versions of the glasses will provide real-time defect detection, where the glasses can help notify drivers if they’ve mistakenly dropped a package at a customer doorstep that does not correspond with the house or apartment number on the package, detect hazards like low light and adjust the lenses, notify that there’s a pet in the yard, and more.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
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