Amazon Developing Smart Glasses For Delivery Drivers

Amazon is developing smart glasses based on its consumer-grade Echo Frames to guide delivery drivers through the final stages of parcel delivery, in a move it believes could speed up deliveries and allow drivers to carry more parcels to more destinations, Reuters reported.

The glasses, which are still under development are intended to display turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen along routes and at each stop.

Within buildings they would tell drivers where to turn when exiting a lift and could provide instructions for how to get around aggressive dogs.

The wearable devices could free drivers from having to consult handheld GPS devices, allowing them to carry more parcels.

Wearable tech

The devices are based on Echo Frames, introduced for consumers in September 2019 as a way for users to access the Alexa voice-controlled digital assistant.

Echo Frames vibrate to provide notifications and have built-in microphones and speakers to interact with Alexa, but do not include a display.

Amazon last updated the titanium-framed devices in September 2023 with a battery that it said provides six hours of battery life with the volume at 80 percent.

The device in development, code-named Amelia, would add a small display in one of the lenses and could take photos of delivered parcels as proof of delivery, the report said.

The device is unrelated to a chatbot called Amelia that Amazon introduced in September for third-party sellers.

Challenges include developing a battery that could power the device, including an added display, for a full eight-hour shift while keeping it light enough to wear throughout a shift without causing fatigue to the driver.

Battery life

Requiring drivers to wear the glasses could also prove a challenge as some may already wear corrective glasses, while the new devices may also be uncomfortable, unsightly or distracting, Reuters cited unnamed sources as saying.

Because many of Amazon’s delivery drivers work for outside contractors, wearing the device could be made a contractual requirement, the report said.

The embedded screen that Amazon is developing is also planned for a future version of the consumer Echo Frames that could be released in the second quarter of 2026, according to the report.

Two people told Reuters that Echo Frames had only sold 100,000 units, but an Amazon spokesperson said sales were higher, without providing specifics.

The detailed data for houses, pavements, curbs, streets and driveways could take years to compile, the report’s sources said.

In October Amazon unveiled a device that it plans to install on delivery van ceilings that shines a green spotlight on the parcels to be delivered at a given stop, reducing the time a driver would normally spend on reading labels.

Amazon’s shipping costs rose 8 percent in the third quarter to $23.5 billion (£18.26bn).