Amazon’s aspirations, though, seem much more ordinary, relatively speaking, focused solely on delivering packages and groceries more quickly and efficiently. Obviously, that’s a meaningful strategic goal, one that would improve the bottom line and gives last week’s announcement that it will introduce a delivery service for businesses some added perspective. Even as getting such a service off the ground will be a massive undertaking, FedEx and UPS don’t have the resources to compete with Amazon were it to have a fleet of cost-effective driverless trucks on the road.

Still, limiting its driverless goals to delivery seems like an uncharacteristically narrow objective for a company that tends to take on new industries and technologies much more boldly. Or does it? There’s certainly a perception that Amazon tends to plunge forcefully into different industries in the hopes of gathering market share and making a big splash, but the reality is different. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t.
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