Amazon will launch delivery drones in the UK and Italy next year

Amazon has announced the expansion of its Prime Air drone package delivery system to international locations.

Starting in late 2024, customers in the UK, Italy, and a third undisclosed city in the US will have the option to receive their packages via drones.

The current Prime Air service, operational in the US for almost a year, has been delivering packages weighing up to five pounds within one hour.

Prime Air’s expansion will include the introduction of the...

19 October 2023 | Applications

Ring founder Jamie Siminoff departs to join Latch

Popular video doorbell firm Ring is experiencing a significant leadership change as founder Jamie Siminoff announces his departure.

Siminoff created Ring with the vision of allowing users to answer their door from their smartphones. He came up with the idea after wanting an easy way to know if someone is at the door while he was working in his garage.

Ring was sold to Amazon for over $1 billion in 2018. Now, after five years with Amazon, Siminoff is ready to pursue new...

16 May 2023 | Consumer IoT & Wearables

Amazon’s latest Matter update unlocks Thread support

Amazon has announced a number of significant updates to its support for smart home standard Matter.

The company says it has now switched on Matter in over 100 million Echo smart speakers, the Alexa iOS app now works with the standard, and, most notably, Thread support has arrived.

Matter is a new smart home standard that was developed by a consortium of companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Samsung. It is designed to make it easier for smart home devices from...

3 May 2023 | Connectivity

Amazon opens Sidewalk IoT network to third-party devices

Amazon's low-bandwidth, long-range IoT network, Sidewalk, has grown rapidly and is now available for third-party device makers to integrate.

Sidewalk currently links many of Amazon’s devices, including Echo smart speakers and Ring doorbells, to create a network that now covers nine out of 10 Americans.

Amazon has announced that it’s opening applications for hardware development test kits that will enable third-party companies to validate the Sidewalk network and...

29 March 2023 | Applications

Amazon’s robotaxis hit the streets of California

Robotaxis from Amazon’s self-driving vehicle biz Zoox are now on the streets of California.

Zoox’s vehicles are purpose-built for autonomous driving and do not feature any manual controls.

The company’s full-time employees are the first to take advantage of the autonomous shuttle service.

Jesse Levinson, Co-Founder and CTO of Zoox, commented:

“Getting to be the world’s first passenger in a robotaxi with no manual controls on open public...

14 February 2023 | Applications

Amazon is acquiring iRobot for $1.7B

Amazon has announced that it’s acquiring iRobot for approximately $1.7 billion.

iRobot is most well known for its robot vacuums but has also been expanding into other product categories, including air purifiers and handheld vacuums.

Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices, said:

“We know that saving time matters, and chores take precious time that can be better spent doing something that customers love.

Over many years, the iRobot team has proven its ability...

5 August 2022 | Consumer IoT & Wearables

AWS IoT FleetWise simplifies fleet management

Amazon has announced AWS IoT FleetWise at its re:Invent conference, a service that aims to make fleet management simpler and more cost-effective.

“Today’s connected cars are already data centres on wheels, each generating GBs of data per hour,” explains Mike Tzamaloukas, GM IoT Automotive, AWS.

Automakers can use IoT FleetWise service to manage this vast amount of vehicle data in the cloud in near real-time.

Intelligent filters can be applied to reduce...

1 December 2021 | Connected Vehicles

Amazon’s self-driving vehicle brand Zoox to begin Seattle tests

Amazon’s self-driving vehicle brand Zoox will soon hit the streets of Seattle following tests in Las Vegas and the Bay Area.

Zoox has been testing its vehicles for over four years, but every city is unique.

“Our goal isn’t to change mobility in a few states; we want to reimagine transportation for the whole world,” explains Zoox in its announcement. ”To do that, we have to prepare for unfamiliar roads and novel conditions.”

‘Hello,...

19 October 2021 | Connected Vehicles

What is AWS Fleet Hub and what does it mean for IoT?

At its recent Re:Invent 2020 event, Amazon Web Services (AWS) revealed that it now has more than half a billion devices connected across more than ten thousand customers who are using its IoT infrastructure. Existing AWS IoT components are quite technical building-blocks, ranging from FreeRTOS and Greengrass running on the device, to IoT Core, IoT Analytics and IoT Device Manager in the cloud. They are the classic “by developers, for developers” best-in-class, technical components for...

16 February 2021 | IoT

Congressman requests specifics of Amazon’s facial recognition pledge

California Congressman Jimmy Gomez has joined those sceptical of Amazon’s recent facial recognition pledge and has penned a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos asking for specifics.

“Corporations have been quick to share expressions of support for the Black Lives Matter movement following the public outrage over the murders of Black Americans like George Floyd at the hands of police,” said Congressman Gomez. “Unfortunately, too many of these gestures have been performative at...

18 June 2020 | AI