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This week Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos got the tech sector's attention with emerging reports of his "fascination" with the rapidly developing world of autonomous autos. "If you think about the auto industry right now, there's so many things going on with Uber-ization, electrification, the connected car -- so it's a fascinating industry," Bezos said. "It's going to be something very interesting to watch and participate in, and I'm very excited about that whole industry." Amazon has made some sizable investments to accompany that interest -- most notably in automation and electrification start-up Rivian and self-driving startup Aurora. And fascination aside, Amazon has a race for the consumer's whole paycheck to vie in with Walmart -- and there is little doubt that auto automation plays like Rivian and Aurora could put some octane, so to speak, behind that effort.