Amazon is putting its rectangular, rolling robot out to pasture. Scout, the chaperoned, 6-wheeled delivery bot, which has been in testing since 2019, will no longer be further tested or developed, according to reports from multiple outlets.
The robot had been deployed for testing in cities in at least four states: California, Washington, Tennessee, and Georgia. And Scouts were fulfilling orders there under the supervision of human “ambassadors.” However, those trial programs are now no more.
“During our Scout limited field test, we worked to create a unique delivery experience, but learned through feedback that there were aspects of the program that weren’t meeting customers’ needs,” Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll told Gizmodo in an email. “As a result, we are ending our field tests and reorienting the program. We are working with employees during this transition, matching them to open roles that best fit their experience and skills.”
About 400 people were employed working on the Scout project worldwide, according to a report from Bloomberg. Nearly all of the workers will reportedly be moved to other teams, while a small “skeleton crew” will keep considering possible autonomous robots, Bloomberg wrote.
“We are continuing to explore the concept but scaling back a bit. We still have a team dedicated to Scout,” said Carroll.
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While they were still roaming the streets, the boxy, battery-powered, bright blue robots carried small and medium-sized packages up people’s doors in an internal compartment. The bot’s lid opened to allow customers to retrieve their purchases.
The end of Scout testing is just the latest cutback in a string of belt-tightening maneuvers for Amazon, that seem to signal financial stress. The retail giant announced a hiring freeze earlier this month. Then, on Wednesday, the company also scrapped Glow, discontinuing its clunky video portal for kids—an admittedly less charismatic design than the Wall-E-esque Scouts.
And, although the idea of a delivery robot that still required a person to walk alongside it while cluttering city sidewalks seemed vaguely dystopian, we at Gizmodo wish the Scout bots a pleasant retirement. Wherever they are now, we hope they have ample, smooth flat surfaces to slowly rove around on.
