
Insurance
..invalidated? Or at least significant extra premiums for those willing to try this out methinks.
Amazon.com's German outpost, Amazon.de, is trialling delivery of goods direct into the trunks of buyers' cars. The trial will only work for Amazon Prime customers who drive an Audi, as the scheme relies on keyless entry to the vehicle. Enabling that access will require testers to add a gadget of undetermined nature to their …
From the boot you can often get into the car or access the wiring loom thus allowing access car's security and in the last generation of keyless BMWs there was a lot of thefts because plugging a computer into the obd port allowed you to program the car to accept a new remote and at that point you could drive it away. (There is a patch but BMW didn't recall or otherwise inform owners). The thieves have since moved on to include other makes - such as Range Rovers. (BMWs also have some flaws in UK model's alarm systems/door locks which made entering them quiet)
We are talking insurance companies. It's not like they need an excuse to raise premiums and not pay out. After all, users of this service will be permitting a complete stranger unattended access to their vehicle. Not to mention if the one-time codes were intercepted before use, say through a MITM attack (other attack vectors are available) compromising Amazon and DHL. Innovative, but risky.
I too can imagine some interesting situations. However, of course lots of things can go wrong with any method of delivery. As we all know, even Post Office and courier deliveries go wrong all the time. In fact they can cause some serious problems on occasion. In this case I give kudos to Amazon for making the effort to ferret out economically (and thus environmentally) efficient ways to deliver goods.
That'll never work in a million years. Some delivery companies can barely deliver to static addresses, now they want to go after moving targets? Banking on Joe public for accurate directions better than "the grey Audi on Somesuch street" and remembering they can't move the car on that day?
This all sounds way more complicated than just getting a parcel sent to your work if you can't be home.
Some cars are always in the same place during working hours - train station car park.
Ideal for people who are not at home but don't want or can't receive a parcel at work or dont want to lug a parcel around on the train on the way home.
I would be slightly nervous of the security implications though.
Then surely the solution there would be an Amazon locker in the train station near the car park. What if it's a multi story park? I still maintain that with a number of delivery companies barely managing to service a static address, a moving target is a recipe for disaster. Or at least coming home to a "We could not (be arsed to) deliver your parcel" email.
Amazon really need to think again
They are trialling this for Audi owners in Munich?
Don't they know that munich is the home of BMW.
I'm sure that one or two Auto Unions will get [redacted] with this plan.
Now if they'd done is with Audi's in Wolfsburg I'd understand.
The cars that is, not the elephants.
What've you got against elephants? They can have a bonnet if they wish. Maybe a fetching tutu as well :)