Slashdot Mirror
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.
I just don't need that level of convenience in exchange for having strangers in my home. It creeps me out more than a little. Maybe there is a market for this, but nobody I've talked to would even consider it.
How about putting a small "DELIVERY-ONLY" shed on your house, and the doorbell can only unlock the delivery shed (After scanning the package for that address)
I needed a car towing about a hundred miles back home. Most tow drivers need you to ride with them so you can receive your keys back at the destination. I needed to remain where the car had broken down and a two hour tow plus a slow and expensive Uber back would have sucked.
Because of home automation, I was able to send the driver with my keys, watch him pull up and unload my car, then open the door for him to drop the keys inside, watching him the whole time, before locking the door behind him.
I was out five minutes of my time vs four hours.
Yes, âoeIOT security!â Lots of panic. Systems are exploitable. You could get robbed.
But no matter how secure the locks on a house, a thief can go through the windows. Put bars on the windows and a thief can drive a stolen truck clean through your wall.
Someone determined enough is going to get in. But theft deterrent is always about making your neighbor a more appealing target and you not worth the hassle.
IOT locks donâ(TM)t change that by any perceptible amount. There will always be edge case hacks but few and far between, not the norm. Plus I have multiple other layers of security so the door is only one small part.
In exchange, I got four hours of my life back that time and have a bunch of other similar stories of the convenience that more than outweighs the very slight additional risk.
The apartment complex I live in has boxes for package deliveries. They drop the key in your mail box. Not available to Amazon, though.