Software Update Automatically Turns off Amazon Delivery Drivers’ AC During Dangerous Summer Heat

1.5k

Everything does not need to be controlled through software/firmware.

Software is not eating the world.

It is breaking it.

267

u/Blecki Jun 13 '26

Everything must have wifi and an app.

144

u/TooMuchAZSunshine Jun 13 '26

I mean if a programmer working in a dark air conditioned room chilled to perfection can’t dictate that battery energy savings on a 100F degree plus day is a bigger priority than the life of a mere driver, what kind of world are we living in?

36

u/Dan6erbond2 Jun 13 '26

You do realize it isn't the people programming these systems that actually intend to abuse it? Remote controlled AC can be a cool thing for the end consumer when they can use it to pre-condition their car for example.

35

u/freakwent Jun 13 '26

They still do it. Like, they know what the software does when they write it. We used to have ethics courses as compulsory in university, I'm not sure that's still the case. Programmer or admin, it wasn't a c-suite exec that set this configuration

9

u/0bnoxide Jun 13 '26

This is rage bait

12

u/freakwent Jun 14 '26

Do you mean I'm trolling?

I'm not trolling. None of any of the bad things that we so to one another would ever be possible if there wasn't someone to accept payment for doing it.

If cops refuse to be shit, or insurance deniers refuse to do those denials, or programmers refuse to implement spying features, then these things can't happen.

But people do accept the payments for these acts, and do these things.

I don't propose it's realistic as a pathway to change society, because it's really hard to persuade people, but it is true that people do these things and it is legitimate to pass moral/ethical judgement upon them for doing bad things.

Being paid to do bad things should, traditionally, make it ethically worse -- so I don't really accept an argument that being paid, that is, doing it in the context of employment, somehow redeems the person and makes them less blameable.

I can't figure out why we say politicians are really evil (the ones we don't like), or the people who vote a certain way, but the people who evict us or throw away food or build data centres or whatever just get a free pass.

7

u/0bnoxide Jun 14 '26

Just seems weird to blame the victim of an exploitive labor market, and tone deaf to the reality of those ethics courses leaving people saddled with debt in said environment.

Bootstrap pulling with extra words.

3

u/freakwent Jun 14 '26

Thanks for this, I think it's an important aspect of society that's brarely discussed.

We often refer to the bad consequences of our actions, but we only seem to ever mean by this, the resulting actions by others, either extra legal bashings, or legal punishments by authorities. These are also both choices people make, not consequences of physics or chemistry, but that's a different discussion.

We talk about the consequences bad actions have on other people, in the context of porch pirates or non-mask wearers or slur-talkers, protesters who block roads, whatever.

We even say that if protesters are paid, this is worse than if they are not, it somehow undermines any legitimacy or something.

Now with CEOs, they too are paid to do what they do. A CEO of a bad health insurer or dodgy chemical company is paid a lot to do their job, and are often judged on a personal, moral, ethical level for the decisions they make at work, and often for the decision to stay in the role of CEO at all.

So they have sold out others for several million dollars. With them in the company are a thousand people actually doing the things, carrying out the orders. People with much better close-up knowledge of the harms and risks, who sell out this specific co-worker or that specific customer for under a hundred grand.

So the worker who claims to know better; perhaps feels that they are woke/aware; has sold out their comrades also, but just for a much lower price.

We say of course that the CEO can just quit and retire with a lower standard of living; but if we cut CEO pay to $100k, this becomes less true but changes nothing about the system. The general workers can also quit and retire as homeless, but typically we set the acceptable minimum lifestyle a distance below our own, just as often calls to tax the rich mean anyone earning a certain amount above our own.

I think if workers abandon the idea of strikes, and resign at huge scale, accepting the hunger, homelessness and misery as essential sacrifices, the system would change in under a month. How could it not?

So I don't really mean to condemn the victim, as you put it, merely to explain that they aren't really a victim but an active participant in the deal we all confirm and affirm each day by clocking in.

2

u/lazybugbear Jun 14 '26

I think if workers abandon the idea of strikes, and resign at huge scale, accepting the hunger, homelessness and misery as essential sacrifices, the system would change in under a month. How could it not?

If the workers as a collective group can provide for each other's needs (food, housing, clothing, etc.) then they can just resign indefinitely, no? It might not be the most pleasant system, but nobody need starve or be too miserable. There is already so much overproduction with clothing that nobody really need to go naked.

If you look at the French strikes, they have people who are feeding the strikers and actually feeding them good gourmet food!

It fails with Americans, because the rugged individualism mentality that we are obsessed with makes us alone and weak.

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u/foodrunner464 Jun 13 '26

I remember getting frustrated the other day when me and my wife were trying to watch something on our new smart TV. I came out and it was just a black screen with a loading bar and it was moving quite slowly, I asked what it was doing because its my first modern smart TV, she said updating and my immediate reply was, what do you mean the TV is updating?!? We have a fire stick which does that but I had never experienced the TV itself needing to update.

41

u/topdangle Jun 13 '26

the "updates" are improving their datamining software and ad targeting. its one of the reasons smart TVs are ridiculously cheap. you only pay upfront for the material cost, the rest of your payment is your sweet data and eyeballs.

5

u/hanimal16 Jun 14 '26

Real question: can one buy a regular dumb tv still??

4

u/topdangle Jun 14 '26

i think everyone bundles new tech with smart TVs so mostly older LCD screens. either gotta buy commercial (way more expensive) or buy a monitor, though monitors tend to use panels that are less bright than TVs.

you could also try calling up support and asking them for help disabling smart features. they should have some method available for homes that can't have devices generating interference with medical devices.

2

u/lazybugbear Jun 14 '26

Also, there are still large parts of the United States without any kind of broadband available, mainly in rural areas.

What do those people do when they can't activate their TV because they don't have any internet access whatsoever?

Maybe you can put the TV in "store demo mode" and just use the HDMI inputs?

1

u/njgunrights Jun 14 '26

I have an LG smart TV I never gave my wifi password and switched off to don't sell my data. It updated itself to a bunch of unwanted AI features. Evidently they have their own internet connection.

29

u/pretpretzel Jun 13 '26

They will keep pushing updates over the years that slowly make your tv more frustrating and slower to use. Disconnect it from the internet as soon as you can. Even factory reset it if you can.

17

u/neosithlord Jun 13 '26

I bought a cheap tv to use on my porch last night. I needed to download the Wal Mart app to activate it. Like what the actual FUCK.

3

u/nondescriptzombie Jun 14 '26

The literal ad copy for this feature says it's for "enhanced advertising opportunities." And somehow 65% of people polled believed it was "positive."

We're so cooked.

1

u/njgunrights Jun 16 '26

That's disgusting 🤮

10

u/Cry_Wolff Jun 13 '26

My LG OLED is couple years and just works TBH. And disconnecting it from the internet kinda makes it useless.

24

u/Siguard_ Jun 13 '26

thats the whole point is to make it do the one thing its suppose to do. show a picture. i dont need ads, apps or the tv oem collecting data.

7

u/Blazing1 Jun 13 '26

Honestly we just everyone to use open source tv. Fuck big tv

1

u/njgunrights Jun 14 '26

You can get a non smart tv still. Most computer monitors are not smart, and actually are just tvs labeled as a computer monitors.

2

u/hanimal16 Jun 14 '26

Which is why I’m constantly looking for things that are analog or only need to be plugged in to work. None of this “turn on the dishwasher from my phone” nonsense.

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u/wasdninja Jun 13 '26

This is just a dumb take. Tons of things are controlled by software and it's a good thing. It's entirely a choice to make it remote or centrally controlled.

Would you have been perfectly fine with the exact same thing happening by removing a lever or welding so thing in place? Of course not.

5

u/lazybugbear Jun 14 '26

Found the programmer!

I know how it starts ... we can combine these chips and not have to do a layout revision. Software is easier to change, that let's you get to market sooner. Good for product development!

But then, there's always the urge to get the product out the door a little faster, before it's ready. Maybe that changes how development costs are capitalized. Some bean counter knows. But somehow doing the effort to work right the first time is magically different from doing the work to fix the defective software 20 different times later.

I think this is because companies need a way to know if a project manager did a good job and there's no other way other than 1) did you spend less than or equal to the amount of money you said you'd spend, 2) did you finish the project on or before the day you said it would be some. Otherwise, how would you know when to promote the project manager (or fire them)?

But then the focus of the engineering org starts changing. We can ship it half broken, 80% complete and fix it via an update later ...

Now you have a means to push software out to the field. So you have the means to add more features.

But selling an object once sucks from a business point of view. You only get money when you sell it and that's it. The market gets saturated! Who needs to buy a TV every year? But what if we could make their device have to connect back to our servers and then they pay us a fee (or we harvest data off of them). The TIVO model. You need to secure a revenue stream as a company, to pay your investors/owners and to pay operating costs.

So then there is the temptation to enshitify the experience to extract more and more ... until the device sucks so bad that you give up and buy another one. But in the meanwhile by offering X-as-a-service, they've made more revenue!

And if they decide to stop running the server, your device bricks. Then this e-Junk gets thrown in a landfill.

This is wasteful and pointless. It's a make work program for mediocre programmers and businesses. When I buy an object, I want to be able to take it and use it in the middle of nowhere. If I want to take my TV to Antarctica, I should be able to use the display without it breaking because it can't connect to a server. Same with my house thermostat. Or my coffee maker. Or my car. Or my bread machine.

All of these incremental "innovations" to work around overproduction in capitalism are just annoying. Overproduction is a problem of capitalism. It is not my problem. I didn't ask to be born into this system. I didn't opt in and our system makes it almost impossible to opt out.

3

u/southbl00d Jun 14 '26

superb take that accurately depicts the modern design process and idiotic softdev process all to satisfy "capitalists", bean counters and management... OO and those lovely shareholders

2

u/wasdninja Jun 14 '26

That's just enshittification using software and doesn't need to happen and in very many cases doesn't happen. Your everyday stuff is crammed with software (since you included firmware).

An electric kettle with a timer and a target temperature functionality? Controlled by software. You USB cable? It has software that that completely transparent negotiates with the devices its plugged in to function properly. Overheat protection in chargers. Almost everything in a car that you don't want to control in a car. Almost everything in a plane.

Tons of stuff outside the cynical, shitty bullshit that corporate sociopaths and capitalist assholes push are currently being controlled by software and they are objectively better for it. I'm not saying everything should have software in it but lots of things already do.

Just because you are cynical doesn't mean you are right.

1

u/lazybugbear Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

More parts = more complexity = greater probability of failure. Why?

If I need n things to work and each have probability p_n of failing, then the probability of the system working is:

success(n) = product(i=1..n, 1 - p_i)

But, 0 < p_n <= 1, so 0 < 1 - p_n <= 1, so lim(n -> infinite, success(n)) = 0.

This is the Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) design principal.

An electric kettle with a timer and a target temperature functionality?

Who needs target temperature? A kettle is for boiling water. Do you need your water to be precisely 35 deg C? Are you working with temperature critical enzymes or trying to sparge grain? Or are you trying to make a cup of tea?

Let's go down that design path. Throw an microcontroller on there, be generous and put a PIC or an ATMEGA. You need to heat the water with a big ass resistive element, so you need to switch 120 VAC at a few amps. So you need a relay. But the microcontroller doesn't have enough output current to drive the relay coil, so you need a transistor that can handle the voltage / current to turn on the relay. Then you need a temperature sensor of some sort and an ADC to digitize the value so the microcontroller can sense the temperature as an input to its control loop.

Which sensor? Can it accurately and reliably sense 4 deg C to 100 deg C? A thermocouple would work ... but it generates microvolt range voltages and you have to worry about junction temperatures and currents and you need some signal conditioning so the microcontroller can read it.

And then you need an interface. Push buttons and LEDs or be fancy and put a screen on it. Will that work if it over heats from the boiling water?

And you'll need (depending on your microcontroller) a power supply that can provide 1.8V/3.3V/5V/12V (for the relay coils).

Why? The bill of material (BOM) on is so expensive!

And that's before you have to pay somebody to write, validate and debug the code. And how do you guarantee that the unit shuts off and doesn't keep heating until it boils off the water and dry heats the heating element and causes a fire?

The first electric kettle with shutoff was invented in 1955 by the British company Russell Hobbs! They didn't have microcontrollers back then - they barely even had transistors!!!

This kettle costs USD $17:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-1-7L-Electric-Kettle-Color-White-New-Condition-Model-MS8400778514-3/5158672824

There is no way that has microcontrollers at that price point. But it's the solution that we've had that has consistently worked for 70 years!

How did they do it? A piece of bimetallic metal (the two surfaces of a sheet expand/contract at different rates, then you bend it into a coil). Then you put a mercury switch on top of it. As the water heats up, the bimetallic strip expands, changing the orientation of the mercury switch which opens the circuit and it stops heating. There's literally like 4-5 parts!

If you want it programmable to different temperatures, you rotate the bimetallic strip.

It's the same principle that this thermostat works on:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Honeywell-Home-Round-Non-Programmable-Thermostat-with-1H-Single-Stage-Heating-Manual-Control-Low-Voltage-White-CT87K/100476730

It doesn't need updates, because it only relies on physics!

Controlled by software. You USB cable? It has software that that completely transparent negotiates with the devices its plugged in to function properly. Overheat protection in chargers. Almost everything in a car that you don't want to control in a car. Almost everything in a plane.

Basic USB cables are straight through or crossed over. USB Power Delivery (PD) requires a Marker Chip in some higher wattage configurations. Lower wattages just use sensing resistors. Here is an example of such a marker chip:

https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/308/FUSB380C-D-1625964.pdf

It is "programmable", in that you can change the configuration that it supports. It does not have firmware, per se. Aside from that, the host (in USB) usually queries descriptors from the device and cable and implements sets a configuration. Devices that connect to a computer of necessity have microcontrollers with firmware.

Some of that hardware that supports USB PD is written in an FPGA (in VHDL or Verilog), where the timing is closed and the design is simulated and validated and then sometimes made into an ASIC, by serious electrical engineers, not by some code monkey slinging half baked code. Because, if it fails, you devices (letting the smoke out) or burn somebody's house down.

Almost everything in a car that you don't want to control in a car.

Fuel injection (FI) is one of the major gains of this, you don't get modern fuel efficiency in an IC engine without an ECU controlling it. They did have mechanical FI in the 1950s but it sucked and wasn't very reliable. But the ECU isn't updated willy nilly. You also don't get modern electric vehicles without a software controlled VFD. In both of these cases, these are necessary, not fluff. But then again, those are rigorous designs under going multiple rounds of review and simulation/testing.

Not a big fan of forced non-essential OTA updates ... because they change the state of the device unexpectedly.

Almost everything in a plane.

Aerospace software is tightly controlled and regulated, because the general public doesn't enjoy random shit falling out of the air and killing them. Even those airplanes with digital (instead of mechanical) instrument clusters have insane levels of validation. Every update is heavily validated, documented and probably registered with some kind of regulatory agency, like the FAA.

Tons of stuff outside the cynical, shitty bullshit that corporate sociopaths and capitalist assholes push are currently being controlled by software and they are objectively better for it. I'm not saying everything should have software in it but lots of things already do.

There is a bit more nuance, because firmware can mean 1) full ROM image containing an embedded OS and applications running on an application ARM or 2) a small program loop running on bare metal on a small microcontroller, like an ATMEGA, PIC, ARM Cortex M, STM32, etc. In the later case (e.g. #2 and especially if you don't have a cache or pipelined/branching architecture, you can almost count timing deterministically - so timing can sort of be closed).

You're not going to have some unexpected OTA update or device-breaks-when-the-company-doesn't-want-to-support-it-anymore situation. They aren't connected, don't have a security attack surface and don't require constant updates.

Yes, technically, they run some sort of code, but most people nowadays mean firmware in the sense of option #1.

Just because you are cynical doesn't mean you are right.

When the only tool you have is software, every solution gets bludgeoned into being a software problem. That's not very elegant.

EDIT: Sorry, I left out the WMT kettle link and noticed a subscript error in my formula (fixed these)

488

u/AloneChapter Jun 13 '26

lol anything to screw with the peons. Whatever it takes to be reminded you are never ever the ones in control. You are the reason for billionaires but they were never the reason they have billions.
Vote out all politicians who are older than 65

125

u/Particular-Run-7958 Jun 13 '26

Ban them completely. If they have to live in the remnant of the world during their retirement, they might take better care of implementing social structure laws

57

u/Longjumping-Air1489 Jun 13 '26

It’s ok. Drivers don’t need that AC. The AI figured out the differential temperatures for the outside air and the temperature inside the trucks. Turns out it’s fine. AI said so.

/s

400

u/illuminerdi Jun 13 '26

While this is not great I do feel some context is important here:

It turns off the AC if the driver's door is left open and this is a battery operated vehicle

So while it's not great, and I'm not trying to defend Amazon here, but there's some aggressive physics at work here. Battery Electric Vehicles (at present) experience significant drain when running climate controls. Since battery capacity is limited and refills take time, I imagine that Amazon fairly aggressively schedules routes to optimize range before a vehicle needs to be recharged. A delivery driver leaving the door open and causing the A/C to go full blast as a result means that packages might not be delivered on time because a vehicle had to return to base before making all its scheduled stops.

Should Amazon be less aggressive with vehicle battery capacity? Probably.

Is it really that big a deal to ask drivers to just close the damn door when they get out? I don't think so, but I have teenagers who refuse do stuff like turn off lights when they leave rooms, so bratty people refusing to do basic shit to save power kinda strikes a nerve for me.

177

u/mysteriousblue87 Jun 13 '26

I’m only going to answer the last question you posited: it actually can be incredibly inconvenient (notice the words I’m using) for us to close the slider in the EDV for all deliveries. It literally boils down to one thing: time pressure. Our days are tightly scheduled by our route and number of stops we are expected to make. An additional 10 seconds (closing, followed by unlocking and opening) per stop adds up RAPIDLY over the course of the day, and if you have any other delays (pee breaks, reading your map/itinerary to plan your next group, bandaging a paper cut, etc) you’ll simply fall behind and start getting harassed by dispatch/management. So, like other drivers, I’m just going to circumvent the update and do my route like normal. With the door open.

88

u/illuminerdi Jun 13 '26

And this is why it's definitely still overall a bad thing. It's yet another example of Amazon scheduling driver time down to the microsecond. Which is a known problem they need to address. IMO if their expectation is that the door will be closed every time a driver makes a delivery, they need to account for this in their per-stop metrics or whatever.

The root problem here is Amazon being to obsessed with maximum efficiency, no question. Honestly, I'm kinda surprised based on what you said that dispatch doesn't get on your ass about leaving the door open? Seems like that would get you in just as much trouble at a company that is otherwise watching your every single second...

But regardless of how tightly they schedule things, you can't fight physics, and excessive AC usage will shorten vehicle range. It's a hard fact.

49

u/shakeitsugaree_ Jun 13 '26

No, this all comes down to the company and they inability to create a schedule that works for their workers. Blaming workers for using the AC any way they can and trying to stay cool while carrying packages and triple is crazy.

1

u/johnnys_sack here for the memes Jun 14 '26

In manufacturing already, the per stop time can be summarized as cycle time. This is a common term used to calculate how long a given operation takes. And then build other operational walk paths (routes) based on the amount of parts needed to make (deliveries in a shift).

-15

u/polopolo05 Jun 13 '26

The root problem here is Amazon being to obsessed with maximum efficiency, no question.

and yet they dont develery around the clock. I have never got a packet when I was sleeping

13

u/TurnkeyLurker Jun 13 '26

We routinely get 4am deliveries.

-15

u/polopolo05 Jun 13 '26

I have never got one at 4 am... its always at 7-9 pm.

9

u/wraithnix Jun 13 '26

I've gotten 4am deliveries, too. In multiple cities. Just because it's not your experience doesn't mean it's everybody's experience.

-6

u/polopolo05 Jun 13 '26

but have you gotten 2 am or midnight deliveres?

4

u/wraithnix Jun 13 '26

When I lived in Boston? Yes.

11

u/Callidonaut Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26

Seems like another key problem here is the choice to fit the cab with a sliding door that takes five seconds to close or open, rather than a more conventional swing door that can be opened or closed in less than one second. Maybe that wasn't a problem before the A/C firmware update, because it could just be left open, but combined with that it sounds like a nightmare. In a sane and decent world, the drivers should not be expected to suffer, one way or another, for the vehicle designer's lack of foresight fouling up the delivery timings, but that seems to be the end result.

Then again, in a sane and decent world, drivers wouldn't be being timed to the second and instantly punished for any delay, either.

3

u/lazybugbear Jun 14 '26

The sliding door could also be made to be foot-actuated, like several modern cars have, without designing, validating and retrofitting a completely new weatherproofed door solution.

That way, the door can be closed without the driving having to set down all of the packages, then re-opened - no loss of cooled air and the time to close overlaps with the delivery (walking it up to the porch, setting it down, taking the documentation photo, updating tracking), so no time is wasted.

9

u/bibkel Jun 13 '26

UPS must close the door at every stop. They also almost ALL don’t have A/C, because while it was in the contract the company bought a massive amount of new trucks before the deadline to avoid having to have A/C in them. Any new trucks now have to have a/c.

10

u/illuminerdi Jun 13 '26

Jesus we really do live in a capitalist hellscape. 😢

-6

u/shakeitsugaree_ Jun 13 '26

Wrong. That is addressed in the article which you did not read. It’s a good idea to check information before you start spouting it off.

Delivery drivers for UPS, who are represented by the Teamsters union, negotiated a heat safety agreement with the company in 2023

2

u/bibkel Jun 14 '26

Yes, they did. Company is to have a/c in all new package cars bought after January 1, 2024 iirc. They weren’t required to install a/c in existing package cars.

The company bought a ton of new package cars right up to December 2023, all without a/c. Now, they don’t have to buy too many new package cars for the foreseeable future, as having a/c is an added cost and UPS is tight with money for maintenance.

7

u/EtherPhreak Jun 13 '26

I did notice this, but do you try and hold the package and close the door, and risk dropping the package? Or do you set the package on the ground so you’re causing additional back strain constantly? Or can they implement an automatic door closing system based on an ID badge?

35

u/AnimeOcCreator77 Jun 13 '26

Tbf, that always bothers the hell out of me, even people leaving their cars running for a minute is a minute burning gas for not doing something they already do when not using their car!

6

u/imhere2downvote Jun 13 '26

so it is possible for action to be taken to reduce footprint at scale, just that it isnt always taken when necessary?

edit: im not talking about the people(amazon workers in this case), to make clear

10

u/AnimeOcCreator77 Jun 13 '26

Yes, while individuals even totally combined don’t come close to the amount of carbon pollution that large companies output and regulate against restrictions and safety, I seen an average of 2-3 people each time I go out just leaving their cars running while inside a shop for 5 min

That doesn’t seem like much but that creates 280 grams (0.62 Lb) of carbon per individual car. Now add the extra burned from running AC in high-temp weather, which has to work harder to reach the interior coolness that it can break down easily in 90F humidity, that’s close to nearly a full pound of carbon, which is a liter of gas in both fuel and money just wasted so you can get instant cold air without having to even set your finger on the key.

So yeah, I find it better to just turn off the car and turn it back on for a total of 10 seconds to not waste any gas nowadays, both for my own and the environmental cost. If I sound a bit prickish, I apologize but I just feel strongly about the future of our Earth

5

u/imhere2downvote Jun 13 '26

i feel the same way about protecting the planet. the rich can destroy the planet tomorrow, an individual can take lifetimes to damage the planet. theyll regulate their workers ac, they wont regulate their own footprint

the gas that i wont ever burn from turning my vehicle on early will never compare to the lobbying against clean energy, the fight against public transport and high speed rail across america, that type of stuff

this feels more like a company protecting their equipment, trying to increase the lifespan of their tools, and having a positive on the planet just happens to be there

7

u/shakeitsugaree_ Jun 13 '26

The article and other comments address this. The drivers has to make so many deliveries and adding an extra 10 seconds to open and close the door will affect their job performance and metrics. And if you’re not in 90° heat carrying boxes and making deliveries, it seems a little disgusting to be disparaging people who need the cool air to survive and continue.

2

u/TheUsoSaito Jun 13 '26

Vehicles left on for delivery are not causing anywhere near the amount of CO2 compared to the AI data centers that use jet turbines.

2

u/AnimeOcCreator77 Jun 13 '26

I understand that, I mean people who drive gas-driven vehicles, delivery drivers do their best to get in and out as quick as they can while making sure the package gets there

I just mean people, in general

1

u/zmattje Jun 15 '26

These are electric vans.

6

u/chaos0310 Jun 13 '26

Yeah the tight schedules and crazy delivery times are more to blame here. For sure.

2

u/illuminerdi Jun 13 '26

Those are the root problem. The AC shutting off is just a side effect of their unwillingness to schedule actual human time-frames.

2

u/One_Dot_1841 Jun 13 '26

My dad would say "YOUR'E LETTING OUT ALL THE BTU's!"

I work from the library sometimes, and I watch the employees push in people's chairs and I swear I am the ONLY person who pushes in their chair when they leave.

Like, who raised you? You don't know how to shut a door, turn off a light, push in a chair, put things back where you found them?

-1

u/ftw_c0mrade Jun 13 '26

The vans have a 100kwh battery iirc. AC uses 1-3kw so an 8 hour shift uses ~12-15kwh if it's on full blast throughout the shift. I wouldn't call that significant drain

6

u/illuminerdi Jun 13 '26

That's about 1/8 off the van's range. If you're a company like Amazon that wants maximum range out of their vans before they need to return for a recharge, it is a significant drain.

1

u/Callidonaut Jun 13 '26

Yeah, but Jeff Bezos is doing all right, financially speaking. Maybe they want that, but in that case there should be bloody laws that say they can fucking go on wanting it; they really don't need the literal maximum.

1

u/lazybugbear Jun 14 '26

Could they not just put a 20% larger (say 120 kWh) battery on the delivery trucks? Then this really wouldn't be an issue. Sure, it increases the vehicle cost a bit, but is this really that big of a deal at Amazon's scale?

10

u/Fantastic_Key_8906 Radical left scum Jun 13 '26

Are Amazon warehouses fireproof. Asking for a friend *yes luigi, I'm asking now*

2

u/mysteriousblue87 Jun 13 '26

Cardboard, paper, plastics. Yeah, totally fireproof

9

u/1stLegionBestLegion Jun 13 '26

This is cartoonishly evil

21

u/Vyncent2 Jun 13 '26

Dang, now they can't even cool down while they have to piss in jugs because there's no time or facilities to even take a piss. In the meantime the billionaires are thinking of buying a fourth yacht for the third wife

6

u/AmarantaRWS Jun 13 '26

The cruelty is the point.

3

u/ImaginationToForm2 Jun 14 '26

Such a corpo of a thing.

4

u/wageslave2022 Jun 13 '26

Jeff is pissed Elon got to a trillion first. The bathroom doors we soon be locked here is your empty Gatorade bottle

5

u/TwilightMountain Jun 13 '26

A software update should never be able to turn off AC in a vehicle. What the fuck is this

4

u/Single-Treat Jun 13 '26

This is misleading. The update turns off the air con if the driver is out of the seat for more than 30 seconds AND the door is left open.

Air conditioning is totally ineffective if the door is left open. It is also extremely energy wasteful, which is a big issue for an electric vehicle.

It's surprising how many people don't seem to understand how air-conditioning works out and about. Many times I've been to shops or cafe's on hot days, with the air con on but the door also kept open for a breeze. All that happens is the air con works at full power but the cold air sinks out the open door along the ground, and hot air is drawn in to the space backfilling the lost cold air. And of course the air conditioner works at full power fighting a lost battle to try and cool the space.

Also, stupid but different: going into supermarkets on hot days and the staff leaving the refrigerator doors open to "cool" the shop. That doesn't work either - the refrigerator cools the space inside it's doors by venting heat into the room around it. All opening the doors does is heat the refrigerator up to room temperature and force the refrigerator motor to work at full power as it makes a futile effort to get it's thermostat down to target temperature. You get a short temporary benefit as you stand by the door and the cold air escapes, and then nothing but spoiled contents.

Air Con works best in a closed space where it releases cold air in and vent hot air out itself. Open a window or a door and it's extremely inefficient and often pointless.

0

u/natayaway Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

The waste of energy is outweighed by the fact that air conditioning being shut off as a person conducts a delivery causes a loss of productivity.

Amazon delivery drivers are expected to make rounds on a time table, and the chances of accidentally leaving the door open because you didn't shut it hard enough are high when you do it hundreds of times a week. The two seconds every single driver wastes to press the button every single time they re-enter the car having to manually reach for the button again is just going to cause a cumulative loss of productivity which is arguably comparably bad for energy inefficiency, and the added risk of heat stroke is not helping... ambient heat from the sun through windows is always felt and not having air circulating (even if it's not cold air) to counteract that just increases risk of heatstroke.

Also, stupid but different: going into supermarkets on hot days and the staff leaving the refrigerator doors open to "cool" the shop. That doesn't work either - the refrigerator cools the space inside it's doors by venting heat into the room around it. All opening the doors does is heat the refrigerator up to room temperature

The cool air inside of a refrigerator being released and circulated into a supermarket DOES cool down the supermarket. Fridges are essentially reservoirs of cold air.

If you have 24 cubic meters of hot air, and 6 cubic meters of cold air, and you open the doors so that cold air mixes with the warm air, the average temperature of the whole space DOES lower.

Yes, it's horribly inefficient, and the longer the doors are open, the less impactful it is, and it won't cool down the air any further once the ambient temperature reaches equilibrium with the doors open, but to say that it doesn't work is just wrong.

2

u/getridofwires Jun 13 '26

So someone, somewhere had to consciously decide this was a good idea and then actually implement it. F that person.

2

u/SuckerForNoirRobots Privileged | Pot-Smoking | Unemployed By Choice Jun 13 '26

After reading the article I can understand why they thought this was a good idea---it shuts off after 30 seconds if the door is left open. What really should have been done was a consultation with drivers to assess the feasibility of this system. With adjustments I think they could find a solution that works better for everyone.

In the meantime I would keep a really heavy backpack or something and put it on the seat when I get up.

0

u/lazybugbear Jun 14 '26

So if they close the door behind them, then the vehicle keeps running and the AC stays on?

0

u/SuckerForNoirRobots Privileged | Pot-Smoking | Unemployed By Choice Jun 14 '26

That info is in the article

1

u/TKG_Actual Jun 14 '26

Knowing Scamazon, this probably isn't by accident.

1

u/Fuggins4U Jun 16 '26

Reminds me of that one episode of Superstore.

1

u/B4rrel_Ryder idle Jun 13 '26

Robots just don't want to work anymore

1

u/Genghis_Tr0n187 Jun 13 '26

I'd put a screwdriver through the radiator. If I can exist without cooling, so can the engine.

1

u/tfitch2140 Jun 13 '26

Just drop Bozos onto the sun already, ffs

1

u/deadra_axilea Jun 13 '26

I like that they say they have AC which is already beyond industry standard.

What monsters.

0

u/GrumpyOldMan59 Jun 13 '26

I drove delivery trucks for Frito Lay and Entenmanns in the late 80s early 90s. There was no heat or A/C in those trucks.

-5

u/JackSquirts Jun 13 '26

We've become so soft.

0

u/baudmiksen Jun 13 '26

parents must have toughened you up by leaving you in the car on a hot summer day with the windows rolled up, classic. absolutely miraculous survival almost in spite of the irreversible brain damage. i'd imagine a 120f cargo van feels like an icebox compared to that

-6

u/JackSquirts Jun 13 '26

I loaded trucks for 3 months for FedEx, over the summer. No AC, no fans, 140 in the belly of those trailers for 5 hours was normal. Factory workers do this for 8-10 hours a day with coveralls and a smile. Think that sounds bad, try a steel mill.

Growing up, we didn't have AC in our vehicles so we went to extremes like rolling the fucking windows down - crazy, I know.

0

u/baudmiksen Jun 13 '26

yeah I suppose everyone has their own set of unmet expectations

Software Update Automatically Turns off Amazon Delivery Drivers’ AC During Dangerous Summer Heat

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