How Audi Car Trunks Are Doubling as Mailboxes With Help From Amazon and DHL
Some Audi owners will soon get special deliveries to the trunk of their car.
— -- You've got mail -- in the trunk of your car.
Audi is teaming up with Amazon and DHL to test a new delivery program that would turn the trunk of an Audi car into a place where the driver can receive quick package deliveries.
Almost everyone has had the experience of not being home for a package delivery and having it be returned to the warehouse only for drivers to try again the next day.
The pilot program is aiming to take out that pain point of home delivery by coming to recipients wherever they are during the day.
While it will be limited to a small test group -- Audi owners in Munich who are members of Amazon Prime -- the companies behind it hope the pilot will yield lessons about how deliveries can be made more efficiently.
Beginning in May, people who meets the criteria for the program can enter their Audi cars as the shipping address when placing an order on Amazon.
The driver will have to specify a general area they expect to be in around the time of delivery. They will also have to consent to allowing their car to be tracked during a certain time frame leading up to the delivery.
Once delivery drivers locate the car, they'll use a temporary access code to open the trunk and drop off the package. The code will expire shortly thereafter, according to Audi.
The pilot program is just the latest for Amazon's push to innovate deliveries. The company has been testing drones that it hopes will one day delivery packages to customers. Amazon also runs "Amazon Prime Now," a one-hour delivery service, in select metropolitan areas.
Germany-based DHL launched its parcelcopter delivery program last year, using a small quadcopter to bring medicine and other necessities to Juist, a small island in the North Sea populated by 2,000 people.