Amazon is using a simulated driving experience to help delivery drivers feel more comfortable getting behind the wheel for the first time. The custom simulator uses three large monitors, a wheel, a seat, and a dashboard to recreate the experience of driving one of our electric delivery vans from Rivian . The whole setup is reminiscent of a super-realistic driving game, and it was developed in partnership with Advanced Training Systems (ATS), a company that uses aerospace-derived technology to create simulated experiences for commercial driver training programs.

An image of a woman in a driving simulator. There is a driver's seat, a steering wheel, a dashboard, and three large screens in front of her. There is a man standing behind the simulator explaining how it works.

“The technology we developed for Amazon allows drivers to fail safely,” said Enrique Mar, director of training and integration at Advanced Training Systems. “New drivers can learn how to navigate situations that would be too dangerous to test in real life. One hour in a simulator is equal to four hours on the road, so trainers are also able to get more drivers up to speed faster.”

An Amazon delivery driver going through training.
I’m a trainer at the Last Mile Driver Academy. Follow along as I guide delivery drivers through a day of training in Denver.
Terry Bailey takes us through the facility where drivers who deliver for Amazon Delivery Service Partners in the Denver Metro area are trained.
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Drivers at training facilities in Denver, Colorado have been the first to try a three-day course using the simulator, which prepares them for obstacles like pedestrians and pets in the street, inclement weather, traffic accidents, and Amazon-specific scenarios like loading the van, unloading, and returning the vehicle.

I had a chance to try the technology, and I was pleasantly surprised by my driving score. Here’s a rundown of what I learned while taking the simulator for a spin.

The simulation is modeled after actual streets in Los Angeles and it follows real delivery routes to make the experience feel about as real as possible.

An image of three large screens simulating the driving experience on an Amazon Rivian delivery van. There is a simulated dashboard and steering wheel below the screen, and a woman is holding the steering wheel while sitting in the driver's seat.

The speed limit was set to 15. This took some getting used to, but I quickly learned that slow and steady speeds would be the key to success—the simulator generates a score at the end. 

An image of a small screen with a map and several metrics on it, including a speed limit sign that says the speed limit is 15 miles per hour.

Controls in the vans are a bit different from a standard vehicle—buttons are used to shift between gears and it takes a moment to get used to the size of the dashboard.

An image of the dashboard on a driver simulator for the Rivian delivery van. It shows a steering wheel, a speedometer, buttons for shifting gears, and various other controls.

I was doing alright, so Mar turned on the rain simulation. Once I got the windshield wipers on, the rain wasn’t all that bad.

An image of a woman sitting in the driver's seat of an automated driving system. A man behind her is pointing to the windshield wipers to show her where they are.

The characters on the screen interacted with you like they would in real life—a kid who darted across the street waved at me as a “thank you” when he got to the other side of the road safely, and the pets were on standby as I pulled into driveways.

An image of a woman sitting in the driver's seat of an automated driving system. A person behind her is pointing to objects on the screen explaining what she is seeing.

When you’re driving a vehicle the size of our delivery vans, the weight shifts. The simulator moves the seat to give drivers a sense of what that might feel like.

An image of a woman sitting in the driver's seat of an automated driving system. A man is standing behind her explaining the simulator.

Aside from one traffic cone at the start, I had zero causalities during the simulated drive, but avoiding the obstacles wasn’t easy. You need a score of 80% or higher to pass. I earned 89%, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready for the road quite yet. 

An image of a woman smiling while driving a simulator of a rivian van. She is sitting in a mock driver's seat, holding the steering wheel and looking at three large screens in front of her that show a simulated neighborhood road.

The training and tests are much more in depth—and likely come with a far less guidance than the demo—but that won’t stop me from bragging.

Delivery drivers undergo specialized training to fully understand the ins and outs of their vehicles before they hit the road. Simulated training is just one of the many innovative training tools the company is using to help keep drivers and communities safe as we continue to invest in our Delivery Service Partner network. Learn more about what it takes to be a Delivery Associate.