Amazon Is Testing Bipedal Delivery Robots to Deliver Packages

As Amazon builds up its robotic workforce, we’re seeing everything from squat and goofy to humanoid and somewhat intimidating. The Amazon Astro (and its doomed Business version) putters around with a smile, but the bipedal Digit has the size and shape of a human—and it walks. Digit started with basic warehouse tasks at an Amazon research facility, but Amazon is now testing a similar robot that can deploy from a van to deliver packages, according to The Verge.

Right now, it looks like Amazon is still a long way from letting its bipedal robot kick down, er, deliver packages to your door. Testing will begin soon in a custom facility that will let the robots hop out of a Rivian van, which appears to be Amazon’s vision for when the robots are eventually cleared to take to the streets. Amazon’s existing fleet of blue delivery vans ...