Amazon introduced new robots for its warehouses and new drones on Wednesday so that the online retail giant can play its trump card: ultra-fast deliveries.
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The Prime Air service (drone deliveries in less than an hour) is already present in two American cities, in Texas and California, and will open in a third location in the United States, as well as in Italy and the United Kingdom by the end of 2024.
Therefore, this possibility remains very limited for the time being. However, according to Jason Patrao, Prime Air’s head of engineering, it’s worth the risk because “our customers have always wanted more speed.”
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“And I think that with drones we can deliver within thirty minutes at scale,” he added in an interview during Amazon’s annual marketing event.
Even with its new, more efficient drones regardless of weather conditions, Prime Air is still far from being able to solve many problems, such as delivery in densely populated cities.
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But its portfolio is growing, with the addition of prescription drugs for users of the service in College Station, Texas.
Upstream, in its warehouses, Amazon relies on robots to speed up the preparation and distribution of packages.
The Seattle-based company just installed a new robotic system called Sequoia at one of its Texas fulfillment centers, which includes gantry and mechanical arms, computer vision technologies and a new ergonomic workstation for employees.
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Amazon already uses 750,000 robots in its warehouses, but wants to make the different machines more interoperable.
Time saving
Sequoia helps identify and stock products received in warehouses “up to 75% faster,” the company said in a statement, allowing items to be listed for sale more quickly.
And order processing time is reduced by 25% in the best case scenario.
“In-person sales in physical stores still account for more than 80% of total retail sales, particularly because the transaction is instantaneous,” recalls Andrew Lipsman of Insider Intelligence.
The company needs to increasingly speed up deliveries in order to better compete with physical stores and thus expand the online sales market, explains the analyst.
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“We’ve seen it for years: the more e-commerce grows, the larger Amazon’s market share becomes,” he adds.
Amazon insists on the necessary collaboration between robots and humans, while its approach raises questions about the risks of job losses.
“Repetitive tasks will undoubtedly be left to robots, yes. And they save people from carrying heavy things or walking for miles,” says Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon’s robotics business.
“But humans are still good at certain tasks that robots can’t do,” he says.
“Over the past decade, we have installed hundreds of thousands of robotic systems while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs,” particularly related to robot maintenance, Amazon said in a press release.
“Without break”
The second largest employer in the US, just behind Walmart, will also test “Digit,” Agility Robotics’ Android robots, to carry plastic containers.
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“According to the Federal Employment Agency, there are currently around a million job vacancies in logistics,” says Damion Shelton, co-founder of the start-up.
“So the problem is not about taking someone’s job, but that there is no one to do the job,” he continues to AFP.
The Digits move slowly on their “legs,” which turn upside down. “But they never stop,” intervenes the Agility boss.
“They work continuously, without breaks, and ultimately their productivity is comparable to that of humans.”
Despite its inescapable appearance, Amazon is facing a new kind of competition this year from Chinese e-commerce apps like Temu, which offers various products at discounted prices.
The platform is therefore keen to continue its frenzied race towards ever more optimized deliveries.
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And that’s the crux of the problem for Sheheryar Kaoosji, director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a support organization for warehouse workers.
He acknowledges that robots can relieve workers of the most tedious tasks, but believes that as long as workers’ compensation rates are enforced, Amazon will continue to have “one of the highest workplace injury rates in the country.” Productivity is too high.
“Their logic is to exploit people and then throw them away,” he claims.