Amazon Is Reportedly Building a Doorbell That Lets Drivers Into Your House (cnbc.com)

According to CNBC, Amazon is working with Phrame, a maker of smart license plates that allow items to be delivered to a car's trunk, to build a smart doorbell that would give delivery drivers one-time access to a person's home to drop off items. From the report: Phrame's product fits around a license plate and contains a secure box that holds the keys to the car. Users unlock the box with their smartphone, and can grant access to others -- such as delivery drivers -- remotely. The new initiatives are part of Amazon's effort to go beyond convenience and fix problems associated with unattended delivery. As more consumers shop online and have their packages shipped to their homes, valuable items are often left unattended for hours. Web retailers are dealing with products getting damaged by bad weather as well as the rise of so-called porch pirates, who steal items from doorsteps. Amazon also has an incentive to reduce the number of lost packages, as they can be costly.

Comments

Re:What Could Possibly Go Wrong?!

[infolation]

In the UK (and elsewhere?) Amazon have been installing metal lockers in local supermarkets. The lockers are different sizes to accommodate all packages and are opened with a one-time pin emailed to the parcel recipient.

So instead of everyone needing their own individual 'shed', 'steel toolbox' etc, they can use Amazon's nearby lockable metal-shed for free.

This makes a lot more sense to me than 'smart doorbells'.