Amazon is to install its R&D brainboxes in Cambridge Amazon says it will be opening a new drone research and development centre in Cambridge, England, later this year. The online cash’n’carry said it would be hiring around 400 new folk, including machine learning and data scientists as well as the usual software engineers. Other Amazon R&D staffers dotted around the UK will be …
Not the best of areas to nip outside for a quick drone test either.
That doesn't matter. This is a vanity address, and the poor beggars there will also have to endure the notoriously high housing costs of Cambridge. If there were any real benefit from proximity to academia, then Amazon would have chosen a location near to one of the universities with a strong reputation for AI and drone technology. Like Manchester.
But hey! It's Cambridge! The very location proves what a high flying company Amazon are, and that they're not just a big warehouse operating on slave labour, dodging every tax they can, and out-pricing the opposition because their shareholders appear entirely happy to be paid no dividends. Looking at the pig's ear Microsoft make of almost everything they touch, and their lack of forward vision or (successful) innovation, you can see that they have the same strategy.
@AC
> That doesn't matter...
From what I've heard, it's far from a 'vanity address'. Most of the original development of the Echo was done in Cambridge, though not in quite as shiny offices. From what I've heard, the drone stuff is not really related - this is all about their home gizmos and smart speech work. Amazon are building on the success of Echo by consolidating their team.
But of course, if you've got a chip on your shoulder and think that Manchester should have been chosen as a location for a team that started in Cambridge, then you're going to be righteously annoyed.
"...handy for the Botanic Gardens at lunchtime but impossible to park."
The building that they're occupying has its own underground car park (for sufficiently high-status individuals, no doubt) and is literally 15 seconds walk from the train station.
It's around the corner from MS Research and rumour has it that a certain fruit-logoed company is going to be locating itself in the under-construction building across the road (they're currently renting an anonymous office next to the Botanics gate). I'd envisage a circulation of talent around this triangle.
Oh, and Google are building 45 minutes away at the other end of the Kings Cross line as well.
Odd, all they are doing is MOVING offices from the already existing offices in Castle Park. They will be getting a few more staff I suspect, a few people are leaving... Raspberry Pi is in the same area, as are Microsoft. Parking/driving is impossible/crap, so I come in by train which actually turns out cheaper anyway. Impossible to actually buy any decent property in Cambridge unless you earn £150k, and even Amazon salaries don't hit those giddy heights for most softies.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
