Amazon develops self-driving delivery robots in Finland

An Amazon Scout delivery robot will also be built in Scandinavia in the future.

It’s been a few years since Amazon introduced its own indoor delivery bot called Scout. The small, self-driving six-wheeled vehicle was introduced at the beginning of 2019 and aims to help the group make parcel delivery easier and more convenient.

Although the project has been quite quiet lately, it is clear that the gears (or rather the independent tires) are still spinning behind the scenes: because how Amazon has now been notified A new Amazon Scout Development Center will be built in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, where the focus will be entirely on robot parcel delivery technology.

The Finnish Scouts team is set to grow in Amazon

So the new team in Finland should consist of more than twenty engineers who will research and further develop Scouting technology. They will work closely with other Amazon research and development labs, such as teams in locations such as Seattle, Cambridge or Tübingen. The focus of the work is to develop a 3D program, on the basis of which the robot is able to avoid obstacles such as objects, people or other impassable areas.

In principle, no more than twenty specialists in scouts should be left in Finland, because the scout team in Finland should continue to grow over time. The company has posted corresponding engineering positions related to autonomous robots on its job page.

Amazon wants to stand out as a sustainable company

Amazon itself is convinced of its robotic self-driving delivery and explicitly refers to the eco-friendly character of Scouting: investing in projects and local communities, one of the goals is “the impacts of climate change on future generations by building a sustainable business that minimizes,” the company writes. In addition to the electric-powered Scout, Amazon has already invested a lot of money in sustainable logistics, such as a large fleet of e-trucks, in the past.

According to Amazon, the Scout delivery robot is “inherently safe” because it moves at a fast pace on sidewalks and can also independently overcome obstacles. Incidentally, Amazon Scout is already on the road at four locations in the US. Amazon has already provided insight into the movement of the car in the videos: