Amazon has announced a new investment drive to expand research and development of autonomous delivery technology in the UK. It will create a new team at its Cambridge development center focused on Amazon Scout, the company’s fully electric autonomous delivery service.
The Scout autonomous delivery vehicles are compact in size and roll along pavements at walking pace. The service is currently in field test mode, with trials delivering packages to customers in four states in the USA. Initially, the delivery vehicles are accompanied by Amazon employees, but the long-term goal is full autonomy.
According to Amazon, the team it is building in Cambridge will work closely with the Amazon Scout research lab in Seattle, Washington, to develop on-system software to help Scout delivery devices safely and autonomously navigate around pedestrians, pets and obstacles found in residential neighborhoods, such as recycling bins and sign posts. With this in mind, the company is actively hiring development engineers specializing in robotics and autonomous systems technologies.