Is Amazon becoming a car company? Not quite, but it may become the next big player in autonomous driving. As reported in several news articles like Forbes and The Street, Amazon has been heavily investing in autonomous vehicle technology to both save money and make money.
AV technology can help Amazon deliver more of its goods itself, thereby saving the company money. Signs of this ambition can be seen as early as 2013 when the company began seriously investing in one type of autonomous transport technology: the use of drones to deliver packages. Further, in the past few years, it built out its supply chain and logistics network. Amazon is leasing approximately 40 planes and has bought thousands of branded truck trailers, which are a likely target for implementing widespread driverless technology because they regularly drive the same stretches of highway.
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