Amazon delivery drivers keeping their eyes on the road will have Amazon keeping an eye on them as the company plans to use AI-equipped cameras inside vehicles to monitor workers in the name of improved safety.
The Information first reported on the plans Wednesday and CNBC followed on Thursday, reporting that the company has been testing the cameras in Amazon-branded cargo vans to monitor last-mile drivers who are contracted through the company’s Delivery Service Partner program.
“We are investing in safety across our operations and recently started rolling out industry leading camera-based safety technology across our delivery fleet,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to GeekWire. “This technology will provide drivers real-time alerts to help them stay safe when they are on the road.”
Amazon referred to a DSP instructional video, below, that shows how the cameras work.
Karolina Haraldsdottir, a senior manager for Amazon’s Last Mile Safety, leads the video in which she says Amazon has partnered with Netradyne, a Southern California-based transportation technology company. Haraldsdottir calls Netradyne the first company to merge artificial intelligence with video to create “industry leading safety systems.”
The video walks through the functions of the Driveri four-camera system, with road-facing, driver-facing and side-facing views. The system does not have audio or live-view functionality. Certain driver actions will trigger the system to upload footage automatically, such as failure to stop at a stop sign, following too close, speeding and distracted driving.
The system also emits audible alerts in the van cab for certain actions. The video shows a driver using a smartphone while driving, which triggers the AI to say, “Distracted driving.” Drivers can also upload footage manually if they experience an action they want shared, such as road rage.
CNBC pointed to an Amazon privacy policy issued in accordance with the cameras that says footage collected by the cameras can be used for employment decisions. The company did not respond to GeekWire’s question about how data from cameras is stored. CNBC reported that the footage goes to a “secure portal.”
DSP drivers who spoke to CNBC anonymously expressed concerns about privacy and how footage could be used for disciplinary action, including firing. Some told CNBC they’re concerned the cameras will add “further pressure to a job that already involves an intense workload of delivering hundreds of packages a day.”
Evan Greer, deputy director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, issued a call for Amazon to stop the program, calling it the “largest expansion of corporate surveillance in human history.”
“Amazon wants to turn their massive delivery fleet into an army of mobile Ring surveillance cameras,” Greer said in an emailed statement to GeekWire. “These devices will exacerbate the unsafe and inhumane working conditions that Amazon’s contract delivery drivers are already subjected to. And they’ll violate everyone’s basic rights by constantly collecting and analyzing footage of our neighborhoods, our homes, and our children.”
Amazon-owned Ring, makers of home security cameras and smart doorbells, has been in the privacy crosshairs in the past after its cameras were hacked in 2019. Amazon’s facial recognition software, which is in use at several law enforcement agencies, has also drawn opposition from civil rights groups such as the ACLU. Last summer, the company banned use of Rekognition software for one year in a reversal that illustrated how quickly the dynamics of law enforcement technology were shifting.
In its privacy policy for the delivery cameras, Amazon states that it will “use appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures to protect the information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction, and will restrict access at the company to those who need to know the information.”
“If the connection isn’t end-to-end encrypted, this is a security disaster waiting to happen,” Greer added.
