Video footage of Amazon drivers being tracked by their employers were leaked to Reddit in recent days — highlighting the extent to which the e-commerce giant monitors those who deliver the packages to Prime consumers.
The surveillance footage, which has been described as a Big Brother-like apparatus that enables Amazon to keep an eye on its drivers, was filmed by the Netradyne camera system that is installed in Amazon delivery vans.
The system uses artificial intelligence to detect when a driver yawns, talks on the phone, or isn’t wearing a seatbelt.
An Amazon warehouse employee sitting behind a desk used a cell phone to record dashcam surveillance footage of a driver who is seen leaning out of her window to talk to a customer.
The surveillance footage, which was found on Reddit by the news site Vice, shows a bright green box tracking the driver’s movements.
The monitor also displays the speed at which the Amazon delivery vehicle is moving — in this case “0 MPH.”
After the driver opens the door, a small French bulldog jumps into the van.
“You seeing this, Joey?” someone in the warehouse who is not on camera is heard saying in the footage.
“Little visitor.”
“Is that a dog?” said Joey, who is also not seen in the footage.
“Yeah, just jumped right in,” the first voice said.
The dog hops onto the driver’s lap. The driver then pet the animal for about 15 seconds.
“What is that, a Frenchie?” Joey asked.
Joey and the other person then engaged in a debate as to which breed of dog it was.
“She had a little guest with her today,” the first voice said.
Another unidentified person chimed in: “Yeah, I see that.”
The footage was posted to the subreddit (r/AmazonDSPDrivers), a channel devoted to memes, videos, and images showing a day in the life of an Amazon delivery driver.
Redditors reacted with shock and disgust at the footage, with one commenting that it was “creepy AF.”
“You just watch people all day…Wtf dystopian Bs is this,” another wrote.
“Is this China? Monitoring every single thing?” wrote another Redditor.
“Funny how manager sitting eating donuts and not doing s–t. But they don’t get cameras?”
Another video that was posted to the subreddit last week showed dashcam footage of the surveillance system flagging a driver for a stop sign infraction.
The video, titled “Bruh!!! Stop sign infraction how????”, shows the driver make a legal left turn just before an intersection fitted with a stop sign.
Another leaked video shows an Amazon driver approaching another vehicle on a narrow, one-lane road — forcing the other driver to go into reverse.
The other vehicle ended up in a ditch off the side of the road.
Simone Griffin, an Amazon spokesperson, told The Post: “Netradyne cameras are used to help keep drivers and the communities where they deliver safe.”
“Delivery service partners have access to the Netradyne portal where the in-vehicle cameras automatically upload video content when there is a safety incident,” Griffin said.
“Delivery service partners can choose to share the video footage with their employees.”
“However, for privacy reasons, publishing the content externally is a violation of program policies,” Griffin said.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
