Amazon Develops Fully Automated Delivery Station Project Tetromino
Amazon is developing a new generation of automated warehouses that use AI and robots to handle the final stage of package delivery to consumers. The internal project is codenamed Project Tetromino, with the goal of building a "fully automated" delivery station.
The delivery station is the final facility in the logistics process, receiving packaged goods from fulfillment centers for sorting and temporary storage before being handed over to drivers for delivery. Internal planning documents indicate that this project could increase package processing speed to about 2.5 times the current design.
The documents state that a pilot program is planned to launch in 2028 with an investment of $103 million, followed by the construction of five stations in 2029 (approximately $85 million each), and an additional ten stations in 2030, totaling over $530 million in investment. Key technology may come from Boxbot's AI system, which is used to move packages from conveyor belts to pallet storage and retrieve them in delivery order.
An Amazon spokesperson responded that this is an early concept, and the financial figures and roadmap in the documents are inaccurate and do not reflect current plans. The company is also accelerating overall warehouse automation, expecting the number of robotic arms to more than double by 2026.
Driven by events, the logistics giant is extending automation from fulfillment centers to end delivery stations, with funding directed towards AI robots and new facilities. Beneficiaries include automation technology suppliers and operational cost reductions, while traditional manual sorting and loading processes face pressure.
Source: Public Information
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Amazon has long promoted warehouse automation, deploying over a million robots for picking, sorting, and transportation, including systems like Proteus and Sparrow. Project Tetromino advances automation to the most challenging aspect—package sorting and vehicle loading at delivery stations, with a name that pays homage to Tetris, emphasizing the challenge of efficient stacking.
In terms of capital, the company plans to invest hundreds of millions in phased construction of fully automated stations, shifting resources from existing semi-automated facilities to AI-driven end-to-end processing. The motivation is to enhance end throughput speed and reduce reliance on manual labor to cope with the continuously growing volume of packages, while accelerating implementation through external startup technologies.
Similar to its earlier comprehensive automation following the acquisition of the Kiva system, or competitors' attempts at last-mile automation; it is currently in the phase of extending from fulfillment centers to delivery stations, with the challenge being real-time sorting of irregular packages.
Essentially, this is a technological substitution. AI and robots will shift end logistics from labor-intensive processes to fully automated workflows, with the mechanism being to solve the "Tetris" loading problem using visual and sequential algorithms, thereby doubling the processing capacity of delivery stations and restructuring the cost and speed dynamics of the last mile.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
The last station is often the hardest to automate.
Efficiency is multiplied through algorithm stacking.
Early concepts will ultimately rewrite logistics costs.