Amazon scraps ‘dystopian’ plans to put warehouse workers in cages, admitting it was a ‘bad idea’ 

Amazon has scrapped proposals to move its warehouse workers around in robot-controlled cages after they were described as ‘dystopian’.

The online giant admitted that the patent, designed to help move staff safely around Amazon’s 100,000 robot workers and other machines, was a ‘bad idea’.

The document, originally granted in 2016, only emerged after it was highlighted in a paper by two artificial intelligence ethics researchers.

But Amazon now says that even bad ideas get patented and it does not intend to use the machine.

The US patent, entitled ‘system and method for transporting personnel within an active workspace’, describes a wheeled cage that would be used to move staff such as maintenance workers safely across its warehouses.

Amazon increasingly uses robots to move stock around the enormous ‘fulfilment centres’. The patent explains: ‘Technological advancements have made an ever-increasing amount of automation possible in inventory-handling. By co-ordinating movement of the human transport device with the movement of mobile drive units [robots], the productivity of the floor is minimally disrupted.’

The technology could have been used in Amazon’s warehouses, such as the one pictured above in Hemel Hempstead

The patent says the cages could be used to move workers who are needed to repair failed robots, or tidy up spills and products that have fallen onto the floor.

The design catered for a cage made of metal, plastic or acrylic. The passenger would be locked in the pod until they entered a code or swiped a staff card and some configurations had a robotic grabbing arm for handling objects.

Amazon was recently criticised over a patent for wristbands that would track workers’ movements. It has also been repeatedly criticised over allegedly harsh, high-pressure working conditions.

Amazon disputes the claims and says it offers a ‘safe and positive workplace’.