Amazon Is Testing Bipedal Delivery Robots to Deliver Packages

As Amazon builds up its robotic workforce, we’re seeing everything from squat and goofy to humanoid and somewhat intimidating. The Amazon Astro (and its doomed Business version) putters around with a smile, but the bipedal Digit has the size and shape of a human—and it walks. Digit started with basic warehouse tasks at an Amazon research facility, but Amazon is now testing a similar robot that can deploy from a van to deliver packages, according to The Verge.
Right now, it looks like Amazon is still a long way from letting its bipedal robot kick down, er, deliver packages to your door. Testing will begin soon in a custom facility that will let the robots hop out of a Rivian van, which appears to be Amazon’s vision for when the robots are eventually cleared to take to the streets. Amazon’s existing fleet of blue delivery vans is made by Rivian, so it’s not surprising that the electric vehicle maker is part of this new delivery system. There’s no word yet on when the robots might get the OK to head into the real world.
As we’ve said before, Amazon’s stance is that robots like Digit won’t replace human jobs. Still, it’s a tough sell. The warehouse Digit has very basic tasks, like collecting empty bins, but it can understand voice commands and Amazon sees its robots becoming “multi-talented assistants,” according to the report. That sounds an awful lot like human workers.
Agility Robotics, the company that created Digit, sees Digit and other robots as workforce gap fillers, rather than job threats.
“In the US, there are over 1 million unfilled material handling positions in the warehousing, logistics, and manufacturing industries,” Agility Robotics writes on its website. “Companies simply cannot find enough people to handle all the tasks required to keep these operations running as fast and efficient as possible. Agility’s humanoid robot, Digit, enables our customers to automate highly repetitive tasks and deploy their most valuable resource – people – where they are needed most.”
Amazon also has a robot that vaguely resembles a Roomba. Proteus robots have been cruising Amazon warehouses for years now, shuttling GoCarts, which are Amazon’s wheeled container systems designed for moving products around. The small Proteus bots can roll under the GoCarts and roll them to their destinations.
Whether they replace human jobs or not, it seems likely that we’ll be seeing more robots in the near future. 
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