Amazon is making huge investments in Delivery Drivers.

Amazon is making significant investments in AI-supported technology. These investments include smart glasses and the expansion of the company’s own driver training academy. The aim is to enhance the safety of independent contractors and improve the quality of order deliveries.

A new funding of $1.9 billion aims to increase the wages of drivers in the Delivery Service Partner program and provide them with AI-supported vehicles that enhance their safety.

Last month, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced plans to establish 30 delivery stations in North America. These stations will be equipped with the Integrated Last Mile Driver Academy (iLMDA) for delivery service partners. After two days of hands-on and extensive training, drivers will receive an additional day of road experience. The goal is to prepare drivers for the many different scenarios they may encounter while making deliveries in real neighborhoods.

At the academy, drivers receive training not only in traditional classroom settings but also using virtual reality glasses for training in controlled environments. Future training expansions will include driving simulators and fake towns where drivers can practice making deliveries in various situations, such as at homes, apartment complexes, and mailrooms.

Amazon introduced the Drivery Academy in 2022, and to date, more than 140,000 drivers have benefited from the program. The fundamentals of delivery covered during training include how to safely and correctly leave a package, managing encounters with pets, safely exiting the vehicle, loading and unloading vans, and controlling the vehicle to avoid skidding and getting stuck.

In an important module of the training, the skid-slide-fall simulator, drivers are secured with safety belts and practice a walking technique to learn how to walk on slippery surfaces.

At the wheel, trainee drivers learn safe driving techniques, such as hazard detection, avoiding careless or drowsy driving, signaling, and maintaining following distances.

The latest module of iLMDA is a driving simulator recently launched at facilities in Denver, Glen Burnie, Maryland, and Seffner, Florida. Drivers receive immediate feedback on their performance through the simulator and have the opportunity to develop critical defensive driving skills in a safe, standardized virtual environment.

Amazon delivers packages to residential addresses through a global network involving 4,500 small business owners. In a blog post dated September 29, the company announced that this $1.9 billion investment will increase driver allowances for independent carriers to an average of up to $23 per hour.

This amount will also go toward a new, self-guided AI digital assistant that will help drivers analyze their learning and delivery quality. This system allows drivers to analyze delivery patterns and driver feedback and makes it possible to perform map improvements through natural language commands.

AI is used to enhance driver safety and delivery quality through intelligent routing technologies, analyzing traffic patterns, automatically correcting map systems, and translating customer delivery instructions into over 30 languages. The company has seen positive results from these safety investments, with a 32% reduction in speeding and careless driving behaviors over the past year.

Innovative smart delivery glasses are the latest technology designed to help delivery agents do their jobs more effectively. This wearable technology aims to assist drivers in identifying hazards, easily reaching customers' doors, and improving deliveries.

The glasses, specifically designed for last-mile delivery agents, can perform functions such as scanning packages, monitoring turns, and obtaining proof of delivery. They provide a hands-free experience by reducing the need for drivers to look at their phones, packages, and the surrounding area.

The glasses create an augmented view that includes everything from navigation details to hazards using AI-supported detection capabilities and computer vision. When drivers park safely at the delivery point, the glasses activate automatically, making delivery information visible in the driver's line of sight.

Moreover, they guide drivers step-by-step navigation to delivery addresses, directing them to precise delivery points using Amazon's geographic technologies. If there are hazards or if navigation is necessary in complex environments, such as apartment buildings, the glasses safely direct drivers to their goals.

Hundreds of drivers tested early versions of the glasses and provided crucial feedback about everything from their comfort for all-day use to the clarity of the displays.

The glasses come with a small control device worn on a delivery vest. This control device includes operational controls, a replaceable battery for all-day use, and a dedicated emergency button that allows access to emergency services if needed. The glasses also support prescription lenses along with transition lenses that automatically adjust to light levels.

Amazon anticipates that future versions of the glasses will provide real-time hazard detection, alerting to the need to provide the correct address rather than packages mistakenly dropped at the wrong delivery points, detecting dangers such as low light, and notifying drivers of pets present in their yards.