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Hot on the heels of Walmart's plans to deliver groceries directly into the fridges of homes with smart locks, Amazon has announced a similar arrangement for package deliveries, called Amazon Key:
Amazon on Wednesday announced Amazon Key, a new program for Prime members that lets delivery people drop off packages inside of customer homes.
To make Amazon Key possible, Amazon has introduced its own $120 internet-connected security camera called Amazon Cloud Cam. Customers who want to participate in the program need to purchase an accompanying "smart" lock to allow delivery people to enter their home. Combined camera-lock packages start at $250.
With the program Amazon is adding what it thinks is a more convenient option than traditional outside drop-off, while also coming up with one solution to package theft which is rampant in some markets.
The obvious questions are whether people will trust a delivery person to enter their home unattended. Amazon is trying to assuage these fears by alerting customers when a delivery is about to happen to allow them to watch it live via their phone.
This really isn't a big deal. They were delivering to the doorstep previously, and now they want to move the delivery by a couple of feet. There's almost no difference.
Also at The Verge.
Previously: Amazon Wants to Deliver Purchases to Your Car Trunk
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday October 26 2017, @02:06PM
There was a handicapped mentally disabled guy at my apartment building when I was a bachelor some decades ago who kinda aggressively managed peoples deliveries with the strained cooperation of the residents, drivers, and apartment mgmt. He was essentially an unofficial doorman/front desk for the building. I didn't like that he just kinda started doing it one day, and his payment terms were weird (we were guilted by apartment mgmt into buying him xmas gift every year, I usually gave him a fruit basket) but it was awful convenient.
I suspect the meme of "automation will destroy most jobs" will result in something like this getting implemented. Here's an hour a day job of solving the last mile problem for your neighbors...
Normally payment is complicated; but Amazon is good at that stuff. For ... a buck I"ll accept the challenge of signing for delivery from UPS dude and I'll do the "last mile" thing to put it in the hands of my neighbor. Even for 50 cents, perhaps. Unless some jackass starts ordering lead ingots for handloading or 160 pound bags of kitty litter I'm pretty chill with even a mere quarter per package to walk over and say "hi" to neighbor, since I'd probably walk over and say "hi" for free anyway without a package to deliver.
Presumably amazon doesn't sell kiddie pr0n or firearms or booze or fun drugs so me or my wife and kids accepting delivery shouldn't cause any legal issues for us. I wonder what the IRS / OSHA / Dept Of Labor think of me working as a piecework package delivery boy, but recent events with taxis indicate sometimes if you just kinda ignore the existing regulations and monopolies then things sometimes just kinda work out. So I'll get 25 cents/hr to deliver a box of crap to my neighbor and I won't have a business license or wear a hard hat or orange vest or anything, but it'll kinda sorta work itself out.
Some people will spend a lot of money to "save" money so I would not be surprised to see a similar implementation where if I pick up my stuff at an amazon locker, shipping is free for me, if I deliver someone else's locker. You know they'll be plenty of old boomers driving 5 mpg SUVs for 25 miles round trip to "save" themselves a 50 cent delivery fee while burning like $10 worth of gas.
Also remember there's "cable TV" appointment times which are eight hours long and only during business hours to punish the customers as much as possible every time they use the service, which would be a nightmare, vs something uber-like where any time any day any hour you can whip out a phone app and 5 minutes later a car with your stuff pulls up. This could be PHB'd into awfulness or it could be super convenient. Maybe instead of running my immediate neighbors there will always be one dude in my subdivision on duty 24x7x365 there's always someone logged in and ready to accept or deliver.
Finally because the tea is really kicking in and I think they caffeine supplement it, because I'm flying the last couple days after opening a brand new bag of Chinese black looseleaf, I've got yet another idea, how about delivering stuff to the pizza and Chinese delivery people who traditionally are only busy during meal time AND lets be honest the only thing better than a nice box of junk from amazon is a nice box of junk from amazon PLUS some steaming hot stir fry, or sickeningly unhealthy yet delicious hot pizza or whatever. "Yo VLM, I got your delivery of three 3.5 to 2.5 SSD cradles for your fast raid array and I can hand them to you in 10 mins, and 'cause of my day job if you hand me $10 cash I can also hand delivery you a large pepperoni with extra cheese with them SSD cradles"