by Graham Hiscott Head of Business
Online giant Amazon has unveiled new hi-tech robots with the potential to replace huge numbers of warehouse workers.
The machines, called Vulcan, have cutting-edge technology that learn to “feel” and have a human-like sense of touch. By doing so, they can carry out detailed picking and packing in warehouses that until now could only be done by people. It paves the way for the robots to take over jobs currently done by workers in Amazon’s vast warehouses - known as fulfilment centres - in the UK and around the world. Amazon, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, employs around 75,000 people in the UK alone, most of them in warehouses. Globally, it has about 1.5 million employees.
Not only that, but Amazon’s ground-breaking technology could be used by other companies, threatening the future of very many people employed in warehouses, especially those low-skilled and earning the least who are most at risk of being replaced by the machines. Younger and temporary workers also risk being disproportionately impacted, given the average age of an Amazon employee in the EU and UK is 35.
Amazon is also preparing to launch drone deliveries late this year, in a move that could put human couriers’ livelihoods under pressure. It comes as many firms are rushing to use artificial intelligence (AI), in another threat to workers doing a vast number of different roles at the moment.
Aaron Parness, Amazon’s director of robotics AI, proudly declared: “Vulcan represents a fundamental leap forward in robotics. It’s not just seeing the world, it’s feeling it, enabling capabilities that were impossible for robots until now.”
conditions for its warehouse staff, claims it has vehemently denied. In the UK, the GMB has begun a legal challenge over workers’ rights in the lead up to a vote which took place at the company’s Coventry warehouse. The GMB's attempt to create the first unionised warehouse in the UK failed last July by just 29 votes. Amazon is accused of using "dirty tricks" and breaking employment law in the run-up to the ballot.
Amazon claims its Vulcan robots will reduce the numbers of workplace injuries by taking over certain tasks. They have already been trialled at two of Amazon warehouses but were unveiled at an event organised by the company in Dortmund, Germany, along with plans to roll them out. Amazon has around 175 fulfilment centres around the world.
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