Amazon cans a major warehouse robotics project — but Blue Jay will live on, with new robots set to come soon

• Blue Jay lasted less than six months despite rapid development speed
• Prototype status was not clearly communicated during Blue Jay’s initial press announcements
• Blue Jay employees are reassigned to programs leveraging core robotic innovations

Amazon has been steadily developing warehouse robotics since acquiring Kiva Systems in 2012, creating the foundation for automated fulfillment centers.

By July 2025, the company had deployed more than 1 million robots in its warehouses, showing a strong commitment to robotics while also highlighting the operational complexity involved.

Despite this scale, not every internal robotics initiative succeeds, and the company’s latest experiment, Blue Jay, illustrates the challenges of rapid innovation.

The rise and fall of ...