Bloomberg reports that "Smart cars will become delivery boxes for Deutsche Post AG’s DHL package operation in Germany this year in the largest test so far of the mail and auto industry working together to leverage connected cars."
According to the story, "Owners of Daimler AG’s Smart models can arrange for DHL to deliver parcels to the trunks of their parked cars starting in September in the parent company’s hometown of Stuttgart, with the service eventually rolled out to a total of seven cities in the following months, including Cologne and Berlin. The project, dubbed Smart Ready to Drop, will be the country’s biggest trial yet of in-car delivery for ordinary vehicle owners, with several hundred customers targeted in each city."
The Bloomberg story goes on to say that "Smart Ready to Drop will be available on models equipped with so-called connectivity box detectors that will become standard equipment as of September. The customer will use a mobile application to agree on delivery details for a car parked close to the recipient’s address. A code will enable the DHL courier to open the vehicle once during a specified timeframe to place the goods in the back, and to pick up any items being returned."
According to the story, "Owners of Daimler AG’s Smart models can arrange for DHL to deliver parcels to the trunks of their parked cars starting in September in the parent company’s hometown of Stuttgart, with the service eventually rolled out to a total of seven cities in the following months, including Cologne and Berlin. The project, dubbed Smart Ready to Drop, will be the country’s biggest trial yet of in-car delivery for ordinary vehicle owners, with several hundred customers targeted in each city."
The Bloomberg story goes on to say that "Smart Ready to Drop will be available on models equipped with so-called connectivity box detectors that will become standard equipment as of September. The customer will use a mobile application to agree on delivery details for a car parked close to the recipient’s address. A code will enable the DHL courier to open the vehicle once during a specified timeframe to place the goods in the back, and to pick up any items being returned."
- KC's View:
-
This seems to be a growing concept in Europe; it was just over a year ago that we noted here a test that Amazon was running with DHL and Audi for in-trunk deliveries. There's also a similar test being run with Volvo in Sweden.
I'd imagine that this could be a very interesting idea to test out in a place like Los Angeles, which has an extraordinarily car-centric culture. We'll know they're really onto something when the deliveries to these cars are being done by drones...
