
Audi and Amazon to try car-boot delivery service - r0h1n
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32431301
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madaxe_again
This strikes me as a bizarre idea, to be honest - I can't imagine many being
comfortable with this, particularly in Germany, which is a pretty privacy-
conscious nation.

Reading the title, I thought they might be doing something genuinely
interesting, by subsidising the cost of the car so long as you have a space in
it which Amazon had access to which can be used for ferrying goods from X to Y
based on your normal travel patterns. i.e. using personal vehicles as deadhead
capacity, effectively.

Edit: Further thought. What if they're about to deliver to your car, having
found it from the GPS beacon, and you decide to drive somewhere. Are they
going to chase you down the autobahn, waving frantically at you?! How will
they manage delivery schedules?

I can't help but think that this is a logistics nightmare.

Edit: Further further thought. What if they can't fit it in your trunk? What
if you park backed up to a wall?

~~~
stephengillie
It's not too far from having similar to a mobile Locker service. What if you
didn't have a key to your trunk, but Amazon paid you $50 a month (or a more
appropriate value)? They could have a delivery carrier put goods into your
trunk before you left for work, and retrieve the goods while you were busy
working.

In some ways, it's also like international drug running - identify users that
work in the USA and live in Canada, break into their cars, and leave illegal
materials there. Then your counterpart will break into their cars while
they're working, and retrieve the illegal materials.

You're exactly right that "incidental driving" would be a complicating
exception. But I cling to the delusional belief that all exceptions can be
handled. :)

~~~
weaksauce
I imagine they'd assume the exceptions are a low percentage and abort if the
car starts up. Either retrying again later or retrying again the next day with
a conventional carrier.

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pkaye
This is a car boot in the US:
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Denver_bo...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Denver_boot.jpg)

~~~
Arzh
Yeah I had to see the bbc.com label to understand the title

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timjahn
Hah! I was thinking the same thing. Being based in the US, I was very confused
by what the headline meant. Even in the article, they never explain what a
"boot" is.

Appears to be the trunk?

~~~
Arzh
Yeah it's what we call the trunk.

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ThePhysicist
Interesting idea, but I think this is more of a PR stunt than a serious
endeavour. As of today, the DHL / Post already offers a range of services to
make sure you don't miss your delivery, most notably a system of 1.000's of
so-called "Packstationen", where you can pick up your parcels 24/7 using a
chip card & PIN code.

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mc32
As someone recently observed, Amazon might have finally jumped the shark. It's
great to try new ideas, continually test new methods, come up with
alternatives, etc. But so far none of these recent things since airprime and
firephone have worked out. It's been a case of one dud after the other. Is
there any reason to believe these things ate anything more than publicity
stunts on Amazon's part? These new ideas are not any more serious than any
senior project in hs. These are things highschoolers can think up. I expect a
little more from the people who brought us online retailing, next day delivery
and aws.

~~~
nedwin
They're an incredibly innovative company. As an innovative company they try
out lots of different ideas. Most of those ideas are going to be relegated to
the dustbin. But the ones that work can turn into billion dollar businesses.

Using car boots for delivery might not work with a single manufacturer, but it
might work for all manufacturers. It might also work more effectively with
driverless cars. Either way it's an experiment to push the boundaries of what
can make their supply chain more efficient.

~~~
AJ007
R&D, PR, and not paying taxes. The weird ideas don't really have to work out
for Amazon at least for now. There is also internal knowledge and data being
cultivated related to these 'flops.' As someone suggested (can't recall who),
sometimes a company like Apple starts developing something internally so when
they do an acquisition they have a pretty good idea on the model and have an
existing team to integrate with. Unlike Apple, Amazon is choosing to put these
stories in the news.

~~~
nedwin
"sometimes a company like Apple starts developing something internally so when
they do an acquisition they have a pretty good idea on the model and have an
existing team to integrate with"

Believe it or not they do that at GoDaddy too.

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Eye_of_Mordor
... so your boot isn't really 'locked' at all?

~~~
ynniv
OnStar has been able to unlock your car remotely for 15 years... this looks
like a creative use of that system. If you disagree, you should manually
disconnect the OnStar system.

~~~
mikeyouse
Up until ~2009MY cars, if you didn't pay for OnStar, they never activated your
vehicle and they would never have access.

I think it was mostly a liability / strategy decision rather than a cost one,
but you can imagine people calling up and begging OnStar to start a
subscription when they need it and then cancelling immediately after. Or
trying to subscribe if their car was stolen to track it down..

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yk
Neat, free Audis...

But seriously, which kind of person believes this is a good idea? It is
obvious, that Amazon needs to track the vehicle until delivery ( with a system
that may or may not be switched off, if not needed) and DHL needs a system to
unlock the car. This is not a hard to explain security hole in a server that
is invisible for the average person. It is granting physical access to your
car to a total stranger. What could possibly go wrong?

~~~
yaeger
Especially in Germany. I wonder if no one thought about the insurance
companies when they thought this up. I bet they might have something to say
about all this. Heck, when you sign up for insurance they want to know if your
car is parked in a lockable garage or just on the side of the street. They
also want to know who besides yourself will be having access/driving the car.
The last thing I as a customer would want to is pay even more for car
insurance cause the added liability changes my contract.

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lordnacho
Interesting idea. Are they saying only the Audi owner will be able to have his
stuff delivered to his car? Isn't the car going to be where the driver is,
most of the time?

How about being able to use your boot as anyone's dropoff point? Say you've
got the car somewhere and someone needs their stuff delivered. They come by,
hit an app for authentication, your boot opens, they take their stuff.

Lots of issues, but why not?

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Actually...

What about "AirBnB for package delivery." I don't have this problem (UPS will
leave stuff at my house if no one is home: they'll even put stuff inside one
of the vehicles if it's raining or snowing), but it strikes me that "renting"
out your house for the express purpose of letting UPS/FedEx/whatever drop off
a package for someone who can't get packages delivered during the day might be
a useful service.

Probably can't charge much per package, but if you're OK with random people
showing up at your house to get packages, it might be a useful service.

And on another note, I just saw the first TV commercial for AirBnB. How long
have those been running?

~~~
fragmede
Amazon Lockers are already a service in select cities. Not sure why there
hasn't been better penetration though.

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200689010)

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
I know about Amazon Locker; I was thinking in the context of a new business
idea.

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shiggerino
I used to explain the problem of of DRM as giving the delivery companies the
keys to your house so they can not only stow the goods right in your shelves,
but also help themselves to whatever you have there. It seems like people
generally like that idea.

~~~
maxerickson
The service won't be viable if the delivery company can't solve the problem of
trusting the delivery people.

So I think people are responding to you in terms of a viable service, where
there is not much reason to distrust the delivery person.

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wehadfun
boot = trunk

~~~
hodgesmr
My first thought was a boot that your car gets when you don't pay your parking
tickets.[1]

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_clamp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_clamp)

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timdaub
Isn't this service incredible useless in Germany? DHL and Deutsche Post both
offer a Abstellvertrag, which solves the problem sufficiently for years now.

For those who don't know: a Abstellvertrag handles the actions that need to be
taken by the deliverer if nobody is home. For example, our postman delivers
our packages at home into our garage.

~~~
legulere
Also you can get a box for packages that only you and DHL/Deutsche Post can
open: [http://paket.de/paketkasten](http://paket.de/paketkasten)

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coldsmoke
Volvo is doing a similar service as well, which seems to precede this.
[http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/01/business/volvo-roam-
klas-b...](http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/01/business/volvo-roam-klas-
bendrik/)

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yellowapple
I'm suddenly picturing epic car chases involving Audis being pursued by DHL
trucks on the Autobahn.

Also, way to totally brush off the bigger news that the FAA's approved testing
of Amazon's drone delivery :)

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digitalneal
I would imagine there is some sort of logic system that will only allow
packages of a certain size to be delivered. Ie: no giant flat screen tvs being
delivered to your trunk.

~~~
stephengillie
I would imagine there's already a system like this for the Amazon Locker.

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RankingMember
A nifty idea, but I can see thievery being a pretty big downside to this.
You're putting goods into an unattended box with easily-broken windows.

~~~
atonse
I think you might be overestimating the security provided by easily-broken
windows and a wooden front door in a house.

They're probably both about the same?

~~~
RankingMember
I agree, though for high-dollar items you're usually required to be present to
sign for an item. That, and your car may find itself parked in areas much
seedier than where you choose to live.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
It's more like "perceived high-dollar items."

When I lived in the city, UPS made me drive out to their depot in the suburbs
to pick up a cheap white box PC because they wouldn't leave it with no one to
sign for it.

However, they had no problem leaving my $900 Karastan rug propped up against
the front door where it could get rained on/stolen, etc...

~~~
ghaff
It sometimes seems pretty random. Going to the UPS or FedEx depot is a bit of
a pain for me and every now and then I'll have to go and sign for something
that in no way merits having to sign given that probably 99% of the stuff I
get from Amazon just gets dropped in either my mailbox or by my front door. I
think the last time I had to go to FedEx it was to pickup a broken P&S camera
being returned to me as unrepairable.

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kmfrk
I've generally come to associate Amazon shipments with dinged packages, so I'd
for one look forward to the circus that'll ensue from this.

