Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge:
Amazon announced today a new service that gives its couriers access to a person’s vehicle for the purpose of leaving package deliveries inside. But rather than use smart locks and a cloud-connected camera to gain entry, Amazon wants to use the connected technologies embedded in many modern vehicles today. The company is launching this new service in partnership with two major automakers — General Motors and Volvo — and will be rolling out in 37 cities in the US starting today.
Amazon creep, first through your front door, and now into your car. Interesting liability issue. If something goes wrong with an in-house delivery, presumably the Amazon camera would be theft deterrent, obvious evidence, and proof of delivery.
But that’s missing with an in-car delivery. You could minimize an issue by emptying your trunk first. But many cars give you access to the main car compartment once you can open the tailgate or trunk lid. And there’s no cloud-based camera to prove delivery catch theft.
It’ll be interesting to watch this unfold.
Side note: Audi and Amazon did a test-run of this back in 2015.
“There are no wrong answers here…”
“Go ahead, think outside the box…”
“Don’t be afraid to share your idea, no matter how crazy it seems…”
Just the latest and greatest from the last Bezos Brain Trust plenary.
Autumn, 2029:
Amazon announced today a new service that will deliver nutrition directly to a customer’s digestive tract, using access to that person’s surgically-attached FirePack, a multi-purpose body-mod device which has proven largely successful at both monitoring vital signs and administering medications obtained through Amazon’s exclusive Prime Drugs service.
This new service will launch in Seattle, Mountain View, and Redmond.