By Greg Bensinger
(Reuters) – Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is developing smart eyeglasses for its delivery drivers to guide them to, around and within buildings, as it tries to smooth the final stretch of an order’s journey to a customer’s home, five people familiar with the matter said.
If successful, the glasses would provide drivers with turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen, along their routes and at each stop, according to the people, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because the project is not public.
Such directions could shave valuable seconds off each delivery by providing left or right directions off elevators and around obstacles such as gates or aggressive dogs.
With millions of packages delivered daily, seconds add up. The glasses would also free drivers from using handheld Global Positioning System devices, allowing them to carry more packages.
The project underscores the online seller’s efforts to reduce delivery costs per package and support margins as it fights increased competition from Walmart (NYSE:WMT), which has stepped up its e-commerce efforts and cut prices. Walmart is paying independent delivery drivers new incentives to deliver online orders during the holiday season, the retailer told Reuters.
Amazon’s delivery glasses, the people warned, could be shelved or delayed indefinitely if they do not work as envisioned, or for financial or other reasons. The sources said they may take years to perfect.
“We are continuously innovating to create an even safer and better delivery experience for drivers,” an Amazon spokesperson said, when asked about the driver eyeglasses. “We otherwise don’t comment on our product roadmap.”
Amazon has worked for years to develop an in-house delivery network, including its own airline, long-haul trucking and sprawling suburban warehouses. In doing so, it hopes to speed deliveries and pare expenses by reducing its reliance on couriers UPS and FedEx (NYSE:FDX).
Amazon’s shipping costs rose 8% in the third quarter to $23.5 billion.
LAST 100 YARDS
The “last mile” for deliveries is costly and complicated because it requires navigating neighborhoods, deploying more couriers and using more fuel. By some estimates, half the cost of a product’s trip to a customer’s doorstep lies in the last mile.
Now Amazon has focused its attention on the “last 100 yards” (91 metres). In October, it unveiled a scanner it will install on delivery van ceilings to direct drivers to packages for each stop by shining a green spotlight on them, saving time usually spent reading labels.
The delivery glasses in development build on Amazon’s Echo Frames smart glasses, which allow users to listen to audio and use voice commands from Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, the people said.
Known by the internal code name Amelia, the delivery glasses would rely on a small display on one of the lenses and could take photos of delivered packages as proof for customers, the sources said. Amazon released in September an unrelated chatbot for third-party sellers that is also known as Amelia.
But the technology is still in development and Amazon has had trouble making a battery that can last a full eight-hour shift, and still be light enough to wear all day without causing fatigue, the people said. As well, gathering complete data on each house, sidewalk, street, curb and driveway could take years, they said.
Delivery drivers visit more than 100 customers per shift, Amazon has said. With increased efficiency, Amazon could ask drivers to ferry more packages and visit more homes.
The Seattle company could face other obstacles, including convincing its thousands of drivers to use the eyeglasses, which may be uncomfortable, distracting or unsightly, the people said, not to mention the fact some drivers already wear corrective glasses.
However, much of Amazon’s delivery force consists of outside companies, meaning Amazon could make wearing the glasses a contractual requirement, the people said.
Sales of the company’s consumer wearable Echo Frames have been disappointing. Two of the people said Amazon had sold fewer than 10,000 units of the most recent generation, released late last year.
The embedded screen in development is also slated for a future generation of the Echo Frames that could be released as soon as 2026’s second quarter, two of the people said.