Amazon stops testing small delivery robots that drive on the sidewalk. The world’s largest online retailer had started the trials three years ago, including in a residential area near Seattle.
The development team had been dissolved and the employees should be offered jobs in other areas of the group, an Amazon spokeswoman told the Bloomberg financial service.
The vehicles looked like a large cooler on six wheels. Around 400 people worldwide worked on the project, Bloomberg reported, citing informed people. The idea of an autonomous delivery robot was to be examined further, but the previous concept had not worked, wrote the financial service.
Other companies have also been working on similar delivery robots in recent years – such as the pioneer Starship Technologies. So far, however, there has been no major breakthrough for the technology. The robots are mostly used to a limited extent in individual areas as well as on company or university campuses. Problems include, for example, robots sometimes getting stuck on sidewalks and needing to be picked up.
