Amazon tries to evade responsibility in delivery vehicle crashes

Although Amazon’s delivery vans aren’t connected to Amazon storage, the corporation nonetheless monitors them; it placed always-on cameras in its trucks and even asked motorists to authorize to yawn-detecting AI surveillance. However, it’s that surveillance technology that has Amazon in the sights of a lawsuit alleging that Amazon is to condemn for a fatal car accident.
The circumstances of the accident are described in this Bloomberg piece, as well as how one case may impact how legal teams approach similar scenarios in the future. Ans Rana, 24, was traveling in the backseat of a Tesla Model S on a busy Atlanta highway earlier this year when he was involved in an accident. An Amazon delivery vehicle rammed into the rear of the Tesla after the automobile came to a stop behind a stalled vehicle, leaving Rana with significant brain and spinal- cord injuries. In June, Rana filed an action against Amazon, alleging that the company was to condemn for the disaster. However, as the report points out, Amazon claims it can not be held liable because the delivery driver wasn’t an Amazon employee.
The delivery driver was employed by Harper Logistics, LLC, one of Amazon’s many delivery service partners. According to Bloomberg, Amazon’s partners employ over drivers worldwide, some of whom say that their employers ordered them to turn off their safety apps to reach quotas. Rana’s case focuses on Amazon’s algorithms, apps, and bias, which the company utilizes to micromanage its workers. Scott Harrison, Rana’s lawyer, wants to show that Amazon uses technology to maintain control over its Delivery Service Partners. As Bloomberg points out, most commercial vehicle claims like these are generally settled quickly. Rana’s case, on the other hand, is notable because his legal platoon contends that Amazon’s surveillance systems make the business accountable. Rana’s counsel wants to probe how Amazon’s machines oversee the company’s operations, but doing so would divulge Amazon’s algorithms, which Amazon claims are” trade secrets.”
The business plans and allocates routes, as well as the number of deliveries each driver should be able to make in a 10-hour shift. It uses a smartphone app, cameras, and other devices put in Amazon-branded delivery vehicles to track each driver’s performance.
The corporation has the authority to order delivery partners to remove drivers who are too sluggish from the road, effectively firing them. According to Rana’s lawsuit, such actions made Amazon reproachable in the crash because they” pushed drivers to rush to the point where it was unsafe” and” concentrated on speed and delivery effectiveness without sufficient consideration for the public’s safety.”
However, it may have an impact on the result of several future lawsuits, If Rana’s legal tactic succeeds. According to Bloomberg, Amazon Logistics has been named as a defendant in 119 automobile injury cases this year, quadrupling the number of occurrences from the previous year. With the approaching holiday season, that number may be on the rise. According to Bloomberg, a Texas couple sued Amazon for$ 1 million in damages after an alleged collision with a delivery driver in February, but the case was later dismissed. Bloomberg’s study is a sobering tale that’s both saddening and infuriating, but it does offer a glimmer of optimism that things will ameliorate. Most significantly, it illuminates Amazon’s treatment of delivery drivers, as well as the implications for everyone else on the road.