Amazon says its AI cameras improve driver safety.
Amazon AI cameras can detect when a driver sneezes.
Patrick Fallon/AFP

After rolling out the cameras in the US last year, Amazon is putting them in more delivery vans.

In the UK, the cameras monitor how drivers perform on the road and issue voice warnings if they speed or brake sharply.

Two cameras are being installed on Amazon vans in Britain, one facing the driver and the other aimed at the road.

The installations were put on hold by Big Brother Watch.

Silkie Carlo, director of the UK-based privacy campaign group, said: "Amazon has a terrible track record of intensely monitoring their lowest wage earners using Orwellian, often highly inaccurate, spying technologies, and then using that data to their disadvantage."

This kind of directed surveillance could risk distracted drivers and demoralising them. Carlo said that it is bad for workers and bad for privacy.

Amazon used its artificial intelligence cameras in the US last year to decide the pay of drivers and whether to keep them on.

confidential documents obtained by The Information show that it created a points-based system to detect when drivers had their eyes off the road.

At least one person resigned after the launch of Amazon's tool to monitor drivers. More than 200 workers signed a petition last year calling for the company to end its labor monitoring.

Accidents decreased by 50%, stop sign violations decreased by 20%, and the number of drivers not using seatbelts decreased by 60%, according to an Amazon spokesman.

The purpose of introducing this technology is to keep drivers and communities safe. An Amazon spokesman told The Telegraph that they had carried out a comprehensive data privacy assessment.

Amazon did not reply immediately to Insider's request for comment.

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