All aspects of Amazon’s operations — both on and off the road — are focused on safety. Continually striving to deliver for customers, Amazon is continuously innovating and advancing safety features in its trucks and vans, ensuring that their partners and communities remain safe during delivery. Managing roadway safety, a complex issue requiring both public and private leadership, requires strong leadership on both sides of the fence. Amazon has led the way in investments and innovations, below I will share some highlights of how Amazon is already achieving the goals outlined in the Federal Highway Safety Administration’s National Roadway Safety Strategy.
In addition to investing $200 million in new safety technology, each of these examples below is part of Amazon’s ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of Amazon vehicles and their delivery partners. Amazon believes that their technologies, in conjunction with the innovations their industry partners have brought to the market, can help raise the bar on safety and reduce the frequency and severity of crashes. Furthermore, in many cases, these innovations are also environmentally friendly.
Here are some of the tech-based safety and sustainability solutions they are continuing to invest in:
The middle mile trucking network at Amazon has been equipped, which is responsible for shipping packages to and from the operating sites before they are dispatched for last mile delivery to customers. There are numerous safety technologies available on this vehicle, including automatic emergency braking, front-collision detection, stability control, lane-departure warning, side-object detection, adaptive cruise control, and speed limits. In addition to providing driver-facing cameras, Amazon tractors are equipped with driver-reflection cameras, which can identify unsafe driving behaviors, such as distracted driving, in order to assist drivers in preventing these behaviors from happening in the future. In addition to sensors to monitor lights, anti-lock brakes, cargo and door sensors, the trailers are equipped with an array of other features. In light of Amazon’s full technology package, equipment manufacturers have indicated that the company is leading the way when it comes to incorporating the most advanced safety features. For better fleet safety monitoring, Amazon has invested heavily in route planning navigation systems and predictive analytics software. Essentially, all of this is integrated into their mobile technology, called Relay, which connects carriers and drivers to Amazon, providing navigation assistance, real-time driver-facing alerts, safety performance summaries, and additional safety training to carriers and drivers.
Alexis Boutilier is from Vancouver, British Columbia. She has a high interest in all things tech and loves to stay engaged on all the latest appliances and accessories.