One of the things we adore about Amazon here at Tamebay is the forward looking innovation they seek. There was a time, not long ago, when Sunday delivery was pie in the sky. But Amazon made that real and now everyone is chasing them on weekend delivery. We laughed at the notion of drone delivery and that may soon be real too. Amazon continues to invest in innovative developments.
Amazon is an exciting firm because it tries out crazy ideas. And this may be the new one: driverless car deliveries. Here’s a report.
Media reports suggest that Amazon has quietly formed a team, maybe comprising of a dozen experts, who are looking at driverless cars which will deliver the goods without human involvement. Obviously, Google has been looking at similar technology for some time. Indeed, this Amazon team may have been in action for more than a year already. It’s all a bit hush hush.
There’s something quite exciting about it all though. Amazon doesn’t see any barrier or hindrance when it comes to exploring new ideas. Some kind of robotic, automated, driverless delivery option is obviously going to be a part of the future. But we, like Amazon, don’t know what that may look like.
But Amazon is putting the cash out there and exploring. It’s admirable. Will you take a delivery from an automated driver in 2020? I’m not sure I could refuse.
One Response
Jeff Bezos is desperately trying to be Elon Musk, that’s how this reads to me.
Firstly Blue Origin chasing SpaceX and now autonomous cars chasing Tesla. The problem for Jeff is not only that he is light years behind Musk in these areas but that he is far from being half the pioneer Musk is. To invest in proven areas after other companies have tried and tested success doesn’t make Jeff anything other than sensible.
“Amazon is an exciting firm because it tries out crazy ideas” – Autonomous cars are being invested in by every major car manufacturer at this point (largely driven and accelerated by Tesla’s launch of autopilot), how does that make this a ‘crazy’ idea. Maybe on the basis that they will face large competition? Maybe.
Amazon are not a good force in the world. I think most of the sellers will agree with that statement. They have got far too big at this stage and for online retailers they have become a necessary evil. ‘If you don’t sell it someone else will’ – that’s their partnership attitude towards their sellers. Whenever I see stories about Amazon expanding into areas such as logistics, loans, transportation etc I shudder with the thought of what this really means for those sectors.
Moan over. Back to work.