Screen shot of Security Cameras monitoring the driving of an Amazon delivery driver. The video was posted on Reddit.
The internet is buzzing over the increasing display of video on the internet from the inside Amazon delivery vans.
“Particularly on Reddit there’s been a strange uptick in the last week or so” Jules Roscoe is covering the story for Motherboard “I think that sort of monitoring climate is something we’ve seen at Amazon a lot and I think it’s starting to grow a little bit.”
Some of the video appears to be from the security cameras that monitor drivers “People I’ve talked to who work at Amazon are saying they’re going to implement a third way of tracking drivers beyond the cameras and apps they already have on their phones” she says.
But is it Amazon or the employees posting these videos? “Did you see the visitor? Oh, the dog? Yea, it jumped right in!” One of the clips shows a woman playing with a dog inside a delivery van; the video appears to be coming from a camera phone.
“It’s uncomfortable” But high-tech expert Rob Enderle isn’t so quick to absolve overworked and stressed-out Amazon employees “Because you recognize you’re on camera all the time and you’d rather not! It just ads an extra layer of angst.”
In no secret Amazon’s craves faster service and executives said as much during an earnings call earlier this year.
“They’re known for productivity and getting packages to you in one-day delivery or two-day delivery” and Motherboard’s Roscoe says that’s can’t be ignored “I think that’s going to be something they’re going to continue to push for; and the way you pressure people into working faster is with more monitoring.”
The Netradyne cameras used by Amazon track everything from speeding to hard breaking and they automatically upload video when there’s a safety incident.
“This has been a big problem for Amazon, workers trying to keep up with production quotas” Roscoe says Motherboard has been reporting on those issues for years but Artificial Intelligence is now raising the stakes “Amazon is a very dangerous job to have, but it’s also something you have to be concerned about when people could be getting replaced by robotics and then where do those people end up? “
An Amazon Spokesperson tells Motherboard the cameras “are used to help keep drivers and communities safe.”
