Very smart idea from Volvo
When you order something online, it gets delivered to you by a carrier such as UPS or FedEX. These deliveries happen during the daytime when most people are at work.
Volvo is proposing that the delivery trucks have one-time electronic keys to your car trunk so that deliveries can be made to your vehicle while you are at work.
Your will receive a text when your package has been delivered and your car locked again.
From
The Car Connection:
Volvo's 'Roam Delivery' Service Puts Junk In Your Trunk While You're Not Around
A bit more:
In other words, when you order goods online, you can give the delivery company a one-time-use digital key to your Volvo. The company uses the Volvo On Call app to locate your car, then uses the digital key to open your vehicle and place your delivery inside. (We assume that using the digital key will automatically cause the car to re-lock once the truck is closed, though Volvo hasn't said as much.)
Volvo explains that it created Roam Delivery -- which will debut at this year's Mobile World Congress -- because up to 60 percent of online shoppers have problems receiving the goods they've ordered. Those missed connections add up to �1 billion ($1.37 billion U.S.) in re-delivery expenses. Of those who participated in Roam Delivery's pilot program, 92 percent "found it more convenient to receive deliveries to their car than at home".
The technology behind Roam Delivery isn't that shocking or new -- after all, it's really just a GPS system merged with some OnStar-style lock-popping. No, what's intriguing is the application of that technology.
Very clever. Fuel efficient too as the deliveries could be clustered around corporate parking lots instead of running all over town...
Posted by DaveH at February 20, 2014 12:18 PM