Amazon's AI Cameras Are Punishing Drivers For Mistakes They Didn't Make

em1ly shares a report from Motherboard: Amazon delivery drivers say surveillance cameras installed in their vans have made them lose income for reasons beyond their control. In February, Amazon announced that it would install cameras made by the AI-tech startup Netradyne in its Amazon-branded delivery vans as an 'innovation' to 'keep drivers safe.' As of this month, Amazon had fitted more than half of its delivery fleet nationwide with this technology, an Amazon spokesperson told Motherboard. Motherboard spoke to six Amazon delivery drivers in California, Texas, Kansas, Alabama, and Oklahoma, and the owner of an Amazon delivery company in Washington who said that rather than encourage safe driving, Netradyne cameras regularly punish drivers for so-called 'events' that are beyond their control or don't constitute unsafe driving. The cameras will punish them for looking at a side mirror or fiddling with the radio, stopping ahead of a stop sign at a blind intersection, or getting cut off by another car in dense traffic, they said.

The Netradyne camera, which requires Amazon drivers to sign consent forms to release their biometric data, has four lenses that record drivers when they detect 'events' such as following another vehicle too closely, stop sign and street light violations, and distracted driving. When the camera detects an 'event,' it uploads the footage to a Netradyne interface accessible to Amazon and its delivery companies, and in some instances, a robotic voice speaks out to the driver: 'distracted driving' or 'maintain safe distance.' Each time the camera registers an event, footage is uploaded into a system, recorded, and affects a score drivers receive at the end of the week for safe driving. Amazon drivers believe that AI-powered surveillance cameras have served as a cost-saving measure for the company. Amazon delivery drivers and delivery companies, known as 'delivery service partners,' which contract with Amazon and employ drivers, have reported losing income from erroneous citations registered by Netradyne.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.