Reports are, Amazon has decided that same-day delivery isn't quite cutting it anymore. Nope, Jeff Bezos and company want those packages delivered faster (like yesterday fast). 

Enter the "Chick-fil-A of eCommerce," now plotting a futuristic solution: smart glasses for its delivery drivers. You heard me, Amazon is reportedly developing a pair of specs that do more than help drivers see the road — these things are essentially mini tour guides, set to guide drivers through buildings, around obstacles (hello, territorial dogs), and down hallways with turn-by-turn directions flashing on a tiny screen. (If you’re wondering, yes this video below is real).

Now, if you’re scratching your head thinking, "Is this really necessary?" consider this: Amazon delivered around 5 billion packages last year. If the company can shave even a few seconds off each drop-off, that’s a serious time-saver. And as Benjamin Franklin famously said “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Last quarter, Amazon’s shipping costs alone went up 8% to $23.5 billion (so if this works, that’s practically 23 big ones in the bank).

The project, internally known as "Amelia" (we’re guessing after Earhart, the queen of navigation), could be the answer to Amazon’s "last mile" problem. This “last mile” (that final stretch from the van to your doorstep) is notoriously complicated and pricey. Think about it: drivers are navigating neighborhoods, dodging lawn sprinklers, and wrestling with apartment intercom systems.

But Amazon wants to go further — they’re zooming in on the “last 100 yards.” That’s the distance from the driveway to your door, and it’s where it gets timely. To fix this, they’ve already installed ceiling-mounted scanners in their delivery vans that spotlight packages for each stop, which saves drivers from label-checking every box (and saves us all from receiving our neighbor’s cat food by mistake).

With these smart glasses, drivers will see directions overlaid right in front of them, minimizing distractions and massively improving efficiency. Think Google Maps, but for your eyeballs. Plus, they might include a camera to snap proof-of-delivery pics, which beats fumbling for a phone mid-delivery.

Sure, the idea is cool. But making wearable tech that can handle the chaos of a delivery shift? That’s a tall order. The glasses need to be light enough not to leave drivers with a neck ache by noon, and they need a battery that’ll last a full shift (which for Amazon is about 18 hours). And from the whispers in the tech world, Amazon’s struggling to make that happen. An eight-hour (okay I guess I was being dramatic) battery life isn’t easy when you’re packing a screen, camera, and maybe even Alexa into a pair of glasses.

(Source: Reuters)

And then there’s the human element. Will drivers want to wear these things? Amazon’s delivery force is mostly contract-based, which means they could potentially require them to wear the glasses. But let’s be honest — strapping on a high-tech headset for eight hours might not be possible. Especially if they’re already rocking corrective glasses.

Why the big push to speed up deliveries even further? One word: Walmart, The old-school retail giant has been seriously building up its online game, including new incentives for its own delivery drivers. Amazon’s answer? Be faster, better, and more efficient (or, you know, slap on some smart glasses and hope for the best).

If these glasses do make it out of Amazon’s lab, they could become the next step in their arsenal to keep delivery costs down. But there’s still a lot of road to cover (pun intended) before they become a reality. If they don’t meet Amazon’s standards, "Amelia" could join the ranks of tech projects shelved in the "cool idea, didn’t quite work" pile, right next to Bezos’s 10,000-year clock idea.

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