This Amazon patent is hoping to use AR to stop your delivery driver getting lost
A new patent by Amazon shows off augmented reality technology that will help delivery drivers with both the best time to make a delivery, the best places to park and even what route they should take, all overlaid onto an AR headset worn by the driver.
Amazon has used technology in its own warehouses to give its pickers instructions and guide them to the items.
However, mapping out warehouses is one thing, and this patent is something altogether bigger, and opens up a lot of new possibilities in the AR space.
The AR headset should be an improvement on route-finding apps like Waze or Google Maps because it will be imbued with the “lore” of delivery drivers.
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Amazon inventor Robert Niewiadomski, writing his patent back in 2016, said: “Experienced delivery agents often learn information about the delivery routes and delivery areas that is not reflected in a delivery route generated by a routing application.” and mentions the lore of delivery driving, information picked up by drivers spending time on a route, whether that’s delivery entrances, gate codes or “the most efficient or best places to park when making a delivery to a destination or a group of destinations.”
The system will get sharper over time, as agents wearing Amazon’s AR headset could add tips on deliveries that were tricky, and these tips will be used moving forwards when building a route for the next day’s deliveries, meaning that if an experienced driver can’t make the same route, all of his knowledge can be given to the replacement without a lengthy handover process.
Of course, just because this patent was filed and published, it doesn’t mean that the technology will ever make it to the real world. The patent was filed three years ago and this alWear, a startup based in Vancouver, Wash., recently raised $80 million for a is the first we’re hearing about it, and it likely will remain all we hear about it until your delivery driver shows up wearing a AR headset.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
