Amazon drivers rebel against unrealistic A.I. delivery routes that don’t account for rivers, train tracks, or narrow roads

Sep 07 (fortune.com) - Amazon’s unionization woes have spread to a new continent, as delivery drivers in one of the company’s biggest markets have rallied to fight poor conditions they say are intensified by the tech giant’s A.I. system.

Fifteen subcontracted drivers in the city of Nagasaki, Japan, who announced their unionization on Monday, blamed Amazon’s artificial intelligence algorithms for generating unfeasible routes and deadlines, according to Bloomberg.

They argued that Amazon’s A.I. system was worsening their working conditions by forcing them to take on long hours and excessive deliveries without being paid for overtime, Bloomberg reported.

The group announced at a press conference on Monday that they were joining another cohort of subcontracted drivers based just outside Tokyo who unionized in June.

“The A.I. often doesn’t account for real-world conditions like rivers or train tracks or roads that are too narrow for vehicles,” said Tatsuya Sekiguchi, the vice executive chairman of Tokyo Union, which organized the unionization of the drivers both this week and in June.

“The results are unreasonable demands and long hours,” he added. ...continue reading

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