Audi to test out having Amazon packages delivered to parked cars


Your car trunk may soon double as your mailbox: Audi on Wednesday said it will start testing a system in Munich next month that would allow drivers to order from Amazon and have their packages delivered by DHL to their vehicle.
Audi spokesman Moritz Dreschsel said this is the first time a car manufacturer, online retailer, and delivery company have worked together in this capacity, The New York Times reports. To participate, a person will have to agree to their car being tracked by GPS, and then a DHL employee will receive electronic authorization to open their trunk to deliver the package. The authorization is only valid once and for a short period of time, and the goal is to make the equipment easy to install in older cars, using the same hand-held computers that DHL workers already have.
The service likely won't be made available to most customers until next year. In 2014, Volvo announced a similar plan, and on Wednesday said their testing is over, and they will soon begin offering the program in Sweden.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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