Amazon is reportedly exploring Project Tetromino, an internal initiative aimed at building fully automated delivery stations and bringing even more robotics into the last mile.

The Fast Five crew discusses whether full automation is inevitable, how quickly Amazon could make it happen, and why the company appears hesitant to publicly own its automation ambitions.

Because when Amazon already has more than a million robots deployed, the question may not be if automation is coming, but just how fast.

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Amazon is reportedly developing an internal initiative called Project Tetromino aimed at building fully automated delivery stations, with the effort potentially relying on robotics startup Boxbot to automatically sequence packages for vehicle loading.

I love headlines where I can almost not get through them with a straight face.

According to Geekwire, citing a Business Insider report, Amazon's delivery stations, that is the final stop before packages reach the doorstep, remain largely manual today, with workers hand sorting parcels and staging them for drivers.

BoxBot, an Alameda, California based robotics startup, however, uses conveyors and AI driven storage trays to automatically sequence packages for vehicle loading, a process the company says can be up to 10 times faster than manual methods.

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said the details cited in the report are, quote, unquote, inaccurate and don't reflect our current plans, calling it, quote, one of many initiatives we regularly evaluate that could change significantly.

And said delivery stations are, quote, designed to complement and empower our workforce.

End quote.

Ken, Amazon already has more than a million robots on the floor throughout the world.

Is full automation of the last mile inevitable at this point?

And what does quote, designed to complement the workforce to really mean?

Yeah, I think you could say, you know, for me, it's sort of Amazon robots equals yes.

Right.

So whether they, whether they get there tomorrow or it takes them a few years, I do think they'll figure.

They'll figure it out.

So a few things.

One is obviously the track record of innovation and automation that they've shown through the incredible warehouses you always see spotlighted every holiday season, the flow of goods and the increasing use of robotics.

They actually have the scale, they have the CapEx budget, and they have the sort of history and experience of innovation to make it work, work.

Number two, they're just so ruthless at attacking every inefficient stage of the, you know, the operations flow and the goods flow.

And so, you know, it's not a big stretch to me to say, okay, they maybe with some partners are going to figure out how to automate that last, that last little bit into the truck and the handling.

They may have to make some changes in terms of box configuration, packaging, etc.

To make it machine actionable, but I have no doubt about that.

And then thirdly, we were talking about AI, but if you also follow global robotics and the innovations there, they're almost on the same evolutionary trend it seems sometimes.

And so it's not a stretch for me at all to think that the robotic capabilities will be meaningfully increased over the next three, four, five years.

So I think we'd be surprised about how fast this one moves, actually.

Yeah.

Right.

I mean, I'm kind of like, of course they're doing this.

Of course.

I mean, who isn't theorizing this and wanting to do this?

So my question to you, Michael, is why don't you just come out and own that you're doing it?

Like, why.

Why are you worried about the PR blowback here?

You know, it's.

It's quite interesting.

I think, if you talk about drones specifically, there has been some PR challenges in.

In regards to, you know, drones operating in areas they shouldn't and also being slightly less controllable.

So I don't really understand why.

Why they're being so tentative about the PR of it, because you would expect them actually to be way ahead of this subject and really to be a leader in it.

So, not really sure that's definitely a question mark, but that question mark leads me to think they don't have it figured out yet.

And I do agree.

I think they will figure it out, and if anybody's going to be successful in it, they will be.

But I think this is something where the future is kind of too far away for them.

So they're trying to make sure that people know that they're looking and playing in the future, but it feels like they maybe are having a much tougher time figuring it out.

Got it.

Yeah, that could be that.

It's just like.

It's just literally an internal document right now.

It's an internal project that's at the stage of trying to figure things out.

Ken, back to you.

Yeah, well, and just to that point, I read it as a little bit maybe of just internal caginess, too.

I mean, there's such a large operation right now, and they've got to think, you know, the workforce, size of employee base, and they've got to be a little bit.

Bit sensitive to labor issues and so forth.

So I. I read a little bit of that in it as well.

They don't want to reveal their plans proactively.

There wouldn't be any benefit.

Yeah, everyone's so scared of anything related to personal impacts on robotics and AI right now, too.

I think it's just kind of the landscape.

But, Ben, close us out here for today's show before we get to the lightning round.

Oh, I completely agree.

I mean, complete agreement with everything that everyone's just said.

And I think when.

When they say designed to complement the workforce, they are literally saying that these are not the droids you're looking for for long.

Exactly.

Right.

Right.

It is That's a great way to end it.

Great way to end.

It always can end on a Star wars reference.