This undated photo provided by Amazon shows a self-driving delivery robot that Amazon is calling Scout. Amazon is expanding the use of its self-driving delivery robots to a second state. NEW YORK – Amazon's self-driving robots will be roaming the streets of another neighborhood. The online shopping giant said Tuesday that the six-wheeled robots, about the size of a smaller cooler, will begin delivering packages to customers in Irvine, California. It comes after Amazon began testing them in a suburb of Seattle at the beginning of the year.

On Wednesday, at Amazon's re:MARS conference, the tech giant announced that it's making Alexa more conversational so the voice assistant can fluidly hop from one topic to the next without you having to call out "Alexa" before each command. Dubbed Alexa Conversations, part of the new rollout of Alexa capabilities includes the option for Alexa to plan a night out for you, according to Rohit Prasad, vice president and head scientist for Alexa at the artificial intelligence event in Las Vegas. Based on the demo of Alexa's upcoming abilities, Amazon is working with several companies to bring the new features to life, including the movie ticket service Atom Tickets, ride-hailing company Uber and dinner reservation app OpenTable. During a display of how the new technology will work, a human voice asked Alexa for Saturday showtimes for the movie "Dark Phoenix." Apple unveils $1,000 Pro Display stand.

Amazon has been under fire from critics concerned about the potential loss of privacy when Alexa hears your every word. So on a day Amazon unveiled its latest smart speaker with a display – the $89.99 Echo Show 5 – the company announced privacy features that will apply to all its Alexa-infused devices: notably, the ability to ask Alexa to delete the recordings of your voice captured when you summon Alexa for a task or query. Starting today, you can utter the words, "Alexa, delete what I said today" and recordings from the given day will be erased. In the coming weeks in the U.S. (and later elsewhere), you will be able to say," Alexa, delete what I just said," to wipe out the last request you made. Amazon separately put the spotlight on a new Alexa Privacy Hub meant to provide transparency around how you can ensure privacy when using Alexa and Echo devices.

If you live in southwest Virginia, don't be surprised at the sight of a drone winging its way on another airborne delivery run over your neighborhood soon. Wing, the drone delivery service spun off from Alphabet's Google, hopes to start flights to homes and businesses in the Blacksburg and Christiansburg areas by the end of the year now that it has the blessings of the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA announced earlier this week that it had approved Wing as the first air carrier certified for drone delivery. In receiving the certification, Wing beat Amazon to the punch despite all the attention that the online merchandise giant has drawn over its interest in deliveries by air. Both companies, along with others, have been racing to develop drones as a more cost-effective way of delivering small, high-value orders, like medicine.

The latest gee-whiz project from Amazon is the Scout robot, a cooler-sized automated delivery device that rolls along sidewalks to transport shipments to your home. Amazon's planes, drones, delivery trucks and relationship with the U.S. Postal Service apparently are not all-inclusive enough to handle the online retailing giant's logistical challenges. Enter Scout, an electric-powered delivery robot. Amazon has begun testing six of the cooler-sized, six-wheeled robots in a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington, about 60 miles northeast of Amazon's Seattle headquarters. Initially, the Scout robots will operate Monday through Friday during the daytime.

Just like a bad break up, we point out the flaws that Amazon saw in your city's bid for their second headquarters. But Amazon's digital assistant does assume the role of a vocally-driven kitchen helper as you reheat a plate, defrost foods, and otherwise prepare a meal with the previously announced but just now available AmazonBasics Microwave. I've been cooking with it for a couple of days, and find the $59.99 price--and to some degree the use of voice--appetizing. As with any other compact countertop microwave, you can press on a keypad to choose power levels--there are ten--or the length of time you'll be nuking the item you've placed inside. But where's the fun in that when you can get Alexa to do everything at your behest?

Jefferson Graham's review of the Amazon Fire TV Edition smart TV, with Alexa voice control of channels--which works sometimes, and other times don't. If you have an antenna. Cable and satellite subscribers will have to endure some hurdles. The 43-inch console, which went on sale earlier this summer, is unlike any TV I've never seen. Want to choose a channel?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Amazon's controversial facial recognition program, Rekognition, falsely identified 28 members of Congress during a test of the program by the American Civil Liberties Union, the civil rights group said Thursday. In its test, the ACLU scanned photos of all members of Congress and had the system compare them with a public database of 25,000 mugshots. The group used the default "confidence threshold" setting of 80 percent for Rekognition, meaning the test counted a face match at 80 percent certainty or more. At that setting, the system misidentified 28 members of Congress, a disproportionate number of whom were people of color, tagging them instead as entirely different people who have been arrested for a crime. The faces of members of Congress used in the test include Republicans and Democrats, men and women and legislators of all ages.

USA Today's Jefferson Graham suggests tips on the best way to shop through Amazon's home assistant, Alexa. LOS ANGELES -- With seven different choices in its Amazon Echo family, consumers are naturally confused about which smart speaker, if any, to buy. The entry-level Dot is the most affordable and Amazon's best seller, but has the worst sound. The video versions of Echo haven't caught on, but are now costing about the same as the regular, full-featured Echo. USA TODAY is here to help, with a guide to all seven speakers, pros and cons on each, and a summation at the end. Amazon's Monday/Tuesday Prime Day sale is expected to have the best deals on Amazon's own products, with especially good discounts on the Echo speakers.

USA Today's Jefferson Graham suggests tips on the best way to shop through Amazon's home assistant, Alexa. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. USA Today's Jefferson Graham suggests tips on the best way to shop through Amazon's home assistant, Alexa.