Prepare for Johnny 5 Amazon Scout.

On Wednesday, Amazon.com said its autonomous delivery robot, Amazon Scout, will begin delivering packages to a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington. The device, a prototype for a robotic delivery service so much needed by Amazon which has been struggling with "last mile" delivery, is the size of a small cooler and rolls along sidewalks at a walking pace.

According to a company statement, Amazon is starting with six Scout devices, delivering packages Monday through Friday during daylight hours; the devices will initially be accompanied by an Amazon employee.

It was not immediately clear what will happen if one of the "Scouts" causes a traffic accident, or worse, death, although we doubt that the company which is closest to monopolizing, well, pretty much everything, is wasting too much sleep over that possibility.

More details from the Amazon blog:

At Amazon, we continually invest in new technologies to benefit customers. We've been hard at work developing a new, fully-electric delivery system – Amazon Scout – designed to safely get packages to customers using autonomous delivery devices. These devices were created by Amazon, are the size of a small cooler, and roll along sidewalks at a walking pace. Starting today, these devices will begin delivering packages to customers in a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington.