Amazon Is Making Smart Glasses with GPS for Drivers: Report

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses proved to be a success with more than 700,000 pairs sold, which is inspiring rivals like Apple to eye the same space.

Now, Amazon is reportedly additionally designing sensible glasses—however not for purchasers. As a substitute, the corporate unlocked a brand new use case for the tech: sooner deliveries.

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In keeping with a Monday Reuters report, Amazon is making sensible glasses for its drivers that would save time and reduce down on the general price it takes to ship packages, making the ultimate mile between an order and a consumer’s residence simpler to handle. Amazon spent $89.5 billion on transport prices in 2023, a brand new excessive from $83.5 billion the 12 months prior.

The glasses would have an embedded display screen that reveals supply drivers step-by-step navigation directions as they ship packages in unfamiliar neighborhoods or buildings. It might inform them the place they’ve to show after getting off an elevator in real-time, for instance, with out having to carry GPS techniques of their arms.

5 sources instructed Reuters about this secret venture, which they stated may take “years” to develop. Amazon is reportedly operating into challenges making sensible glasses with a battery that lasts the complete eight hours of a shift with out being too cumbersome to put on.

^{Amazon Echo Frames as of September 2023. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Photos}

The glasses can be based mostly on Amazon’s present $299 Echo Frames, which at present enable clients to name, play music, and discuss to Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.

Every Amazon driver delivers greater than 100 packages per eight-hour shift, per Reuters. Amazon’s Supply Service Accomplice program employed 390,000 drivers as of September.

Associated: Are Apple Smart Glasses in the Works? Apple Is Eyeing Meta’s Ray-Ban Success Story, According to a New Report.