On October 7, e-commerce giant Amazon announced that it would abandon its home deliveryrobotBusiness, there are signs that the company is winding down pilot projects as sales growth slows.
Amazon has now stopped developing Scout, the autonomous robot that it launched about three years ago, and the project, which employs about 400 people globally, will be reassigned to other departments after the business is cut off, people familiar with the matter said.
As for why the program was stopped, Amazon spokeswoman Alisa Carroll said that during the program’s testing, the company worked hard to create a unique delivery experience for customers, but learned from feedback that there were still some areas that didn’t meet customers’ expectations. need.
Starting in 2019, Amazon tested the robot on sidewalks outside Seattle, before expanding to Southern California, Georgia and Tennessee. During the test, the robot is supervised by a special person. After arriving at the consignee’s location, it will stop in front of the house and open the lid, and the customer will take out the package by himself.
In addition to the delivery robot business, Amazon is also tightening in other investments, including cashierless stores, flying deliveriesdroneand satellites that promise to provide internet access around the world.Amazon is also reported to stop selling the Amazon Glow, a video-calling device for children, froze hiring for corporate retail teams and is gradually shutting down its remotemedicalServe Amazon Care.
Coincidentally, the survival dilemma of distribution robot companies is by no means an isolated case.
entireservice robotIn the field, medical services, commercial cleaning and outdoor distribution Robots are the three potential tracks. Generally speaking, describing a type of product with potential means that the product has not yet exploded, and distribution robots are indeed the case.
From a trend point of view, in 2022, distribution robots will reach an unprecedented development speed, and the demand for unmanned distribution will increase sharply. For reasons such as epidemic prevention needs, reducing labor costs, and improving work efficiency, robot demanders continue to increase their procurement needs for distribution robots.
At present, distribution robots have obvious advantages in application requirements and benefits, but from the perspective of shipments, indoor distribution > explanation and guidance > commercial cleaning > medical services > outdoor distribution, the real application of distribution robots is not widespread.
For the distribution robot itself, due to the diversification of application scenarios, products are required to have stronger flexibility and variability. Restaurants expect restaurant delivery robots to be able to take dishes, clean and give voice commands; hotels expect delivery robots to achieve positioning and smart home linkage; hospital delivery must consider the complex environment of the hospital and how to achieve efficient delivery ; And outdoor distribution robots are expected to solve the “last mile” problem of express delivery and takeaway; although the application scenarios of guiding robots are diverse, the needs are not rigid enough…
On the one hand, the “limited capacity” on the demand side and on the other hand, the supply side is in full swing. In the struggle to survive, distribution robot companies have experienced many tests such as layoffs and business lines. How to expand the market and meet the needs of users is the core problem and difficulty at present, but this problem has no solution at present. Perhaps behind the crazy expansion of the industry, it will take several rounds of shuffling to calm down.
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