Amazon has implemented AI cameras
in its delivery vehicles to
essentially surveillance drivers.
And there are some significant
consequences to this because
turns out the AI
technology is pretty faulty and
the data that it records is being
used to deny drivers their bonuses.
So they're losing pay based on
faulty technology that has been
installed to surveil them creepily
as they do their jobs.
In February,
Amazon announced that it would
install cameras made by the AI tech
startup Netradyne in it's Amazon
branded delivery vans as
an innovation to keep drivers safe.
And that's what they always
say, right?
No, we just we care about our
drivers.
We care about our workers.
We just want to keep them safe.
No no.
They want to surveil them.
They want to make their lives even
more miserable than it already is.
They're expecting to make 25
deliveries in an hour like it's
insane the quotas that they have
to meet.
So on one hand,
they have these insane quotas.
On the other hand,
they're being surveilled to ensure
that they're driving perfectly.
Even though they have
all the incentives to drive, not so
perfectly because they got to meet
that quota, right?
I mean, it's just workers are being
pulled in a billion
different directions, it's insane.
So as of this month Amazon has
fitted more than half of its
delivery fleet nationwide with this
technology.
Now Derek delivery driver at
the facility said that the camera
in his van started to incorrectly
penalize him whenever cars cut him
off an everyday occurrence in
Los Angeles traffic and
I can definitely attest to that.
Maintain safe distance the camera
installed above his seat would say
when a car cut him off.
The data would be sent to Amazon,
and would be used to evaluate
his performance that week and
determine whether he got a bonus.
So again this data gets recorded,
it get sent over to Amazon, and
then Amazon uses the data which is
faulty based on several of its
workers by the way speaking out
against this.
They make the decisions on Pay
based on the faulty data.
In fact, Derrick and
that's not his real name.
He's obviously using a fake name
because he's worried
about retaliation from Amazon also
said this every time I need to make
a right hand turn, it inevitably
happens many he gets cut off.
A car cuts me off to move into my
lane, and the camera,
in this really dystopian dark,
robotic voice shouts at me.
It's so disconcerting.
It's upsetting when I didn't do
anything.
And by the way, like the workers
keep reaching out to Amazon.
They reach out to their employer
which oftentimes is a third party
that's been contracted by Amazon to
say, hey,
I didn't do anything wrong.
This is faulty.
This is insane like I got cut off
and they get nothing more than
crickets from Amazon.
They still get their pay docked.
In fact, the owners of the delivery
companies that have been contracted
out by Amazon have been complaining
about this as well.
Let's hear from one other worker,
an Amazon delivery associate who
says when I get my score each week,
I asked my company to tell me what
I did wrong.
My delivery company will email
Amazon and CC me and say hey,
we have drivers who'd like to see
the photos flagged as events, but
they don't respond.
There's no room for discussion
around the possibility that maybe
the cameras data isn't clean.
And another driver this time
a driver in Amazon told vice the
following, the Netradyne cameras
that Amazon installed in our vans
have been nothing but a nightmare.
They watch every move we make.
I have been dinged for following
too close when someone cuts me off.
If I look into my mirrors to make
sure I am safe to change lanes,
it dings me for
distraction because my face is
turned to look into my mirror.
I personally did not feel any more
safe with a camera watching my
every move because the camera is
not meant to keep you safe.
It's meant to control the workers,
it's meant to surveil the workers.
It's meant to push unreasonable
expectations on workers for
delivery drivers to meet
unreasonable quotas, while at the
same time being perfect drivers.
And in this case, even when
the drivers aren't doing anything
wrong, they get dinged for it and
their pay suffers as a result.
And I do want to give you one
statement from a Delivery Service
Business owner that Amazon has
decided to give a contract to.
This person says Amazon uses these
cameras allegedly to make sure they
have a safer driving workforce but
they're actually using them not
to pay delivery companies.
They just take our money and
expect that to motivate us to
figure it out.
Listen, delivery drivers
are reduced to urinating in plastic
bottles in their cars, because
they want to meet the quota that
Amazon has forced them to meet.
So if Amazon genuinely cared about
the safety and well being of its
workers, maybe create a situation
in which they don't have to urinate
in plastic bottles in vehicles.
Maybe look into that.
Anytime Amazon claims and
actually cares about the safety and
the health and
the well being of its workers.
Just take a good hard look at how
they treated
workers in the beginning of
the pandemic as they were demanding
simple things like protective gear.
I mean, one of the workers who was
organizing Amazon warehouse
employees to make these demands
got fired immediately.
Amazon doesn't care about their
health or their well being.
What Amazon cares about is
extracting as much labor as cheaply
as possible from these workers.
That's it.
And the reason why
they're surveilling them is because
first of all their creeps just like
give people a little
breathing room a little freedom.
But the surveillance is really
about keeping tabs on them and
ensuring that,
there isn't any bad driving
that could harm the company.
They could care at all about
how the workers are feeling or
how they're being treated.
They've been treating the workers
poorly for a long time now.
And it's not just Amazon.
We're seeing employers all across
the country use surveillance
technology as more and more workers
have to work from home.
So, if you're happy about the fact
that you might be a remote worker
now, thanks to the pandemic and
you could be a remote
worker permanently,
because things are changing.
Don't worry.
They'll find a way to surveil you
and many remote workers are already
experiencing it has nothing at all
to do with your well being.
It has everything to do with
extracting as much labor from you
as possible for
the cheapest possible price.