Amazon unveils prototype AI smart glasses for its delivery drivers (www.bbc.com)

Amazon unveiled "Amelia," a prototype AI-powered smart-glass system designed for delivery drivers: a glasses unit with camera and built-in display that pairs with a waistcoat and button for capturing delivery photos. The company is piloting the hardware with over a dozen delivery partners and hundreds of drivers, and says the device can detect when it’s in a moving vehicle (auto-shutoff) and includes a physical switch to disable all sensors. Amazon estimates the glasses could save up to ~30 minutes per 8–10 hour shift by reducing repetitive tasks and helping drivers find packages faster. The reveal also included a robotic sorting arm already in use in a South Carolina warehouse and a facility-level AI system that ingests historical and real-time data to anticipate bottlenecks and suggest operational improvements. For the AI/ML community the announcement signals deeper adoption of wearable computer vision and edge-assist tools in logistics rather than consumer markets (Amazon hasn’t ruled out future consumer versions). Key implications include scaled data collection and on-device inference opportunities, human-centered HCI and safety design (motion-aware shutoff, hardware privacy switches), and tighter integration between field wearables and warehouse automation/ML-driven operations. This move joins other tech firms experimenting with smart glasses (e.g., Meta) but emphasizes last-mile efficiency, workforce safety, and operational ML pipelines rather than consumer AR experiences.