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Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Amazon App Mentor is Being Used to Track Delivery Drivers

    Amazon App Mentor is Being Used to Track Delivery Drivers

    Around the 5th of February, Amazon confirmed that they are going to be installing AI-enabled cameras in the vans used by delivery drivers, which triggered privacy concerns. But Amazon has already been tracking their delivery drivers and their behavior.

    Amazon requires their delivery drivers to install and continuously run this app called Mentor. This app can monitor where the driver is at all times and if their phone moves at all. At the end of their shift, the app automatically calculates a score for the employee,  and this score measures their driving performance. “So this app is constantly tracking their location? This definitely sounds like an invasion of privacy,” says Quinton Turpin, a sophomore at Lakewood High School.

    Amazon is saying that the AI-equipped cameras are in the same category as this smartphone app, which is a digital driver safety device.

    On the bright side, this app can help delivery drivers avoid accidents and unsafe driving habits while they are on the road.

    Many employees find this app an evasion of privacy, and worry that this app will sometimes glitch and cause them to be unfairly disciplined by their manager.

    This app has four ratings for the employees’ scores: Poor, Good, Fantastic, and Fantastic+. They also have an area that allows you to check your coworker’s scores. Because of this, many delivery drivers say that it causes them extra stress, mainly because they are competing against the rest of their co-workers.

    The only thing Amazon has in mind is safety. They are doing this because of driver safety, but they are mostly using this because they want to make sure that their reputation stays safe as well. They don’t care about how the delivery drivers feel about this; they just care about making money and keeping their good name.

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