Amazon halts Blue Jay warehouse robot months after debut, exposing AI hardware challenges

Amazon halts Blue Jay robotics project after less than six months | TechCrunch

Amazon has hundreds of thousands of robots in its warehouses, but that doesn't mean all of its robotic initiatives are a success story. The ecommerce giant has halted its Blue Jay warehouse robotics project just months after unveiling the tech, as originally reported by Business Insider and confirmed by TechCrunch. Blue Jay, a multi-armed robot designed to sort and move packages, was unveiled in October for use in the company's same-day delivery facilities. At the time, the company was testing the robots at a facility in South Carolina and said it took Amazon significantly less time to develop Blue Jay -- only about a year -- than it did to develop its other warehouse robots, a speed the company credited to advancements in AI. Amazon spokesperson Terrance Clark told TechCrunch that Blue Jay was launched as a prototype -- although that was not made clear in the company's original press release. The company plans to use Blue Jay's core technology for other robotics "manipulation programs" with employees who worked on Blue Jay being moved to other projects. "We're always experimenting with new ways to improve the customer experience and make work safer, more efficient, and more engaging for our employees," Clark told TechCrunch over email. "In this case, we're actually accelerating the use of the underlying technology developed for Blue Jay, and nearly all of the technologies are being carried over and will continue to support employees across our network." Amazon also unveiled the Vulcan robot last year, which is used in the storage compartments of the company's warehouses. Vulcan is a two-armed robot, with one arm meant to rearrange and move items in a compartment while the other is equipped with a camera and suction cups to grab goods. The Vulcan can allegedly "feel" the objects that it touches and was trained on data gathered from real-world interactions. Amazon has been developing its internal robotics program since 2012 when it purchased Kiva Systems, a robotics company whose warehouse automation technology formed the foundation of Amazon's fulfillment operations. It surpassed 1 million robots in its warehouses last July.

Amazon quietly cancels Blue Jay warehouse robot months after debut

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. In brief: Amazon has quietly shelved Blue Jay, a multi-armed robot designed to accelerate same-day deliveries, just a few months after its high-profile debut. The company confirmed that the machine's core technologies will continue to be used in other warehouse projects, but the Blue Jay program itself reportedly ended in January. The discontinuation marks a major course correction in Amazon's robotics strategy - and underscores the persistent gap between AI's rapid progress in software and its slower, costlier translation into the physical world. Blue Jay, introduced in October 2025, represented Amazon's fastest-developed warehouse robot to date, leveraging advances in artificial intelligence to teach multi-arm coordination and object manipulation in under a year. When first shown to employees, Blue Jay was touted as a leap forward: a ceiling-mounted system capable of recognizing, sorting, and handling several packages at once. The robot used AI-based perception models and was designed to reduce strain on workers while speeding up the critical same-day fulfillment process - a core competitive front in e-commerce logistics. Despite its promise, Blue Jay's short lifespan reflected significant engineering challenges. People briefed on the project described steep manufacturing costs and complex installation demands, particularly due to its ceiling-mounted structure. Amazon's Local Vending Machine (LVM) warehouses are described by sources as largely monolithic same-day systems, with automation tightly integrated into a single, massive structure. Blue Jay was designed to operate within that framework, leaving limited room to reconfigure the hardware beyond the constraints of that integrated layout, according to those people. Several employees working on Blue Jay have since been reassigned to other robotics programs, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Amazon spokesperson Terrence Clark said the company continues to test and retool warehouse automation systems, emphasizing that technology developed for Blue Jay will inform future designs. "We're always experimenting with new ways to improve the customer experience and make work safer, more efficient, and more engaging for our employees," Clark said in a statement to Business Insider. Amazon's next step is expected to center on a warehouse architecture dubbed Orbital, described by sources as a shift away from the LVM model toward a more modular, flexible structure. Unlike LVM's fixed design, Orbital can be assembled from multiple smaller units and deployed more quickly across varying warehouse layouts. As Amazon shifts away from its older LVM model toward the more modular Orbital architecture, its next-generation warehouse hardware is taking shape as well. Flex Cell is a new robotics system that Amazon plans to develop using parts of Blue Jay's technology. Unlike Blue Jay, which was mounted to the ceiling, Flex Cell is expected to be floor-mounted. The shift toward Orbital reflects broader trends within Amazon: smaller fulfillment hubs, faster deployment cycles, and integration across retail channels such as Whole Foods. Sources said the modular approach could allow Amazon to place high-efficiency micro-fulfillment centers behind retail stores - particularly for chilled and perishable inventory, areas where the company trails Walmart. While early internal timelines suggest an Orbital-based same-day facility may not open until 2027, the program represents Amazon's clearest move yet toward modular automation. Its success will hinge on how well Amazon's robots - once designed for massive, centralized fulfillment operations - adapt to the fragmented, unpredictable infrastructure of local retail and urban distribution networks.

Amazon's Shiny New Warehouse Robot Just Failed in Spectacular Style

In October, Amazon proudly announced a new warehouse robot made up of multiple robotic arms called Blue Jay, which alongside an AI system would "reduce repetitive tasks, improve safety, and boost productivity -- while speeding up delivery." "Visually, Blue Jay operates like a juggler who never drops a ball -- only here, the 'balls' are tens of thousands of items moving at high speed," the company rhapsodized at the time. "It's also like a conductor leading an orchestra, with every motion in harmony." Now the whole thing has turned into an embarrassing debacle. As inside sources told Business Insider, the tech giant quietly pulled its Blue Jay robot just months after its announcement, undermining its claims of taking advantage of recent advancements in AI tech. Spokesperson Terrence Clark told BI that the core tech of the multi-arm robot will be repurposed elsewhere. It remains unclear why exactly Amazon chose to mothball the robot. "We're always experimenting with new ways to improve the customer experience and make work safer, more efficient, and more engaging for our employees," Clark said. "In this case, we're actually accelerating the use of the underlying technology developed for Blue Jay, and nearly all of the technologies are being carried over and will continue to support employees across our network," the spokesperson told TechCrunch in a separate statement. Clark also said that Blue Jay was a prototype, although Amazon's October press release didn't mention anything about that. The failed experiment highlights how difficult it is to carry over recent advancements in AI into the real world. Reality is far messier and more unpredictable than a digital environment, requiring algorithms to continually adjust. Amazon's response also underlines the company's commitment to eventually automating its warehouses with robots. As the New York Times reported the day before the company showed off its Blue Jay robot, Amazon is secretly looking to eventually replace more than 600,000 jobs with robots. There's been immense buzz over the past few years about human-free "dark factories" -- entirely automated facilities that don't require lighting, heating, or air conditioning, that are starting to crop up in China. Companies are also betting big on humanoid robots, which could eventually take over many tasks currently being fulfilled by humans. But as the latest developments go to show, the tech needed to fulfill human jobs still needs plenty of work. Meanwhile, the pressure on companies to deliver on their lofty promises, especially when it comes to AI, continues to grow. Amazon has committed to spending $200 billion to build out AI infrastructure this year alone, a lofty sum that had investors rattled earlier this month. However, whether its failed robot will matter much in the long run is unlikely. Just earlier today, news emerged that Amazon had surpassed Walmart as the world's largest company, measured by sales, a momentous occasion highlighting the e-commerce behemoth's continuing dominance. Shares, however, remained steady following the news, suggesting a lingering wariness among investors.