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Amazon unveiled Key for Garage—a system that allows Amazon drivers to unlock garage doors to make secure deliveries.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/7/18167425/amazon-key-garage-business-home-deliveries-prime-ces-2019
They should start selling something like a secure mailbox for prime members, if you get most of your stuff off Amazon I would imagine it's a worthy thing to have. But just opening a house like that? And to a corporation? Nah, I would've passed on that.
They do.
That is pretty cool but I think @NeoTheFox means something you might have outside your home.
Yup, this is what I mean. But the delivery postomat is also pretty good thing if it's located in a local mall, it's for more urban areas however.
I suppose it's not much different than picking up a package from the post office. You can even get larger post office boxes if you get a lot of packages there.
You can already put a numberpad on a box, the trick is ensuring that amazon passes that information on to the delivery company.
The delivery people wouldn't bother, from what I know about how Amazon delivery operates they are overworked and underpaid, and they have too little time to bother entering a keycode or even checking any package specifics. Just remember all these amazon delivery videos where the guy has to yeet the package from the window or jogs, throws it and runs back ASAP. And once they'll switch to drones good luck getting a drone to enter a keycode.
Just as an anecdotal example of this in practice, my neighborhood has little special parcel hutches, and whoever it is delivering Amazon things to my house just shoves them entirely into a hedge near my front yard. I don't care about the hedge's structural integrity, so I really respect his complete disdain. It must be a shit job, and there's certainly worse places my boxes could go than a hedge -- I admire the carrier's disinterest.
At least with a drone the package can be delivered directly to your locked/gated backyard, if applicable.
Hell, you could even arrange to leave an upstairs window open and deliver straight to a mini helipad in your hallway.
Right? Especially after they got all that flack about their delivery drivers recently.
Knowing how many “IoT” devices have troubles with security, I would probably stay the hell away from such “services”.
I'm slightly into home automation; I've got network controllable lights, thermostats, smoke alarms, etc. The one thing I refuse to fuck with are door locks. The security on these things is both generally terrible, and totally proprietary. The last thing I want is to have to keep up to date on security vulnerabilities on my door lock because it turns out some guy can download an app and get into my house whenever he wants.
A lot of smart locks literally do not have the capability of unlocking via wireless/z-wave/etc. functionality for precisely this reason.
Although with a traditional lock you're open to unpatched exploits like lock-picking, bump keys, etc.
Not that adding shitty proprietary software will help.
Most smart locks (at least any one worth owning) allows traditional keys as a backup, so those exploits are there no matter what.
For those of us who don't know the jargon, what's an "IoT" device?
“Internet of Things”. I've always hated the term. It's kind of like calling Internet “Audiovisual Telegraph” or “Telephone of Documents”. Then there is the abomination that is “Industrial Internet of Things”. When a friend's company announced that they are to start an “Industrial Internet of Things Branch”, he lovingly named that branch “The IndIoTs”.
Ah. I've seen that phrase! I just didn't know it was so common it had evolved into an initialism.
Thanks.
I'm not sure how Internet of Things relates to either of those descriptions. It's just a name for the concept of connecting traditionally analog or standalone devices ("Things") to the internet.
IoT as is seems to be chock-full of BS appliances that add very little new functionality (beyond a phone app so you can control it remotely), at least in their current state. For that, I understand why people seem to dislike the concept so much; that and the whole "we can hear you even when you think we can't" thing with voice assistants. I'm not a big fan of the commercial manifestation of IoT.
But regardless of anyone's conception of the term "Internet of Things" its a rapidly growing "industry" (even though much of it is due to the hype train). Obviously one of the largest problems in IoT is in regards to security, both because its fucking hard to secure everything and because devs (or at least their bosses) are either lazy or not knowledgeable enough on security. That probably isn't going to change without placing high value on security, which is probably more akin to a culture shift, or better regulation, which would require technologically-literate legislators.
At the end of the day, IoT is just adding networking functionality to things. Disagree with the term or not, that idea is not going away, and I don't think it should. There are a wealth of creative ways in which this can be used, and I really think we'll start to see meaningful realizations of this over the next couple decades.
In addition, it really locks you into Amazon. What if Walmart decides to go all out and introduces their own garage door opener, and Walmart offers better service/prices/etc? You've already bought the Amazon garage door opener, and you can't have both Walmart and Amazon opener at the same time, so why would you spend money replacing the Amazon opener with the Walmart opener? In addition, since you already have the Amazon opener, you might as well continue buying from Amazon because sunk cost fallacy even if Walmart is better and cheaper, right?
It might be convenient, but I will never buy a smart lock simply because it forces brand loyalty.
I'm not even slightly part of Amazon's target market. For starters, I find their website to be confusing and almost unusable. I was familiar with eBay long before Amazon came long, so I'm no stranger to buying online, but trying to find something and buy it on Amazon.com is a frustrating process. I have therefore never been, and probably never will be, an Amazon customer.
However... they can just fuck off with this idea that I would give anyone automated access to any part of my home. Who the hell do they think they are? I don't even give my boyfriends a spare key to my home until I've known them for a very long time. Why does Amazon think I'm giving its random delivery drivers a spare key to my home without having even met them?
And then they want me to pay them for the privilege?
No. Just no.
Well they're the most valuable public company in the world, so they have that going for them.
So? Having a lot of money doesn't entitle them to automatic access to my home.
And this "Key for Garage" looks like just another way for them to pocket more of people's money.
I guess I understand the hostility if you don't use their service + live in a major city. If you fit into that group, however, it makes a lot of sense. Packages are being stolen constantly in my area and it can get super aggravating. Not sure if I would use the service because I think it's kind of weird too but I'd have to imagine they have a level of accountability set up.
There are so many other solutions to that problem that don't involve giving a stranger access to your home, where they can potentially steal more things. Off the top of my head there are the amazon lockers, and policies by delivery companies not to leave packages at the door.
Yeah, like I said I think it's kinda weird but there will most certainly be a level of accountability to prevent the delivery driver from being a weirdo. As far as other solutions, my thought is that packages can be picked up at Fed-ex, UPS, USPS locations, which if you're in the city, are almost always in close proximity. That's what I always do if I have an expensive package, at least.
They're definitely taking a bad situation and trying to squeeze money out of it
Although they both launched in the same year, Amazon wouldn't be a real competitor until they fully expanded away from books, in 2000.
That's why I put the first sentence there: as a disclaimer. However, this isn't about trusting Amazon specifically. I would not give any corporation automated access to my home. I wouldn't even allow Australia Post, an independent government-owned utility, this sort of access.
Not here in Australia. Officially, they only launched here last year. Even unofficially, they weren't well known here until long after eBay had become ubiquitous and was already the local eponym for buying or selling something online.
Didn't even know about amazon key. TBH I would have set that up at my last apartment if I had known it existed. The condo I bought is very quiet, our door is very secluded from both the road and the path to our apartment, and we've never had any packages stolen so I have no incentive to get it set up now, but it's a neat idea.
Amazon has drivers? Will they be parking drones in my garage?
You are probably joking, but I can already imagine Bay Area tech-bros pondering if they could “rent” people’s garages and back yards for a “distributed warehouse”.
I'd accept a lockbox that I'd have installed outside my house that Amazon drivers can open, but not my garage door (even if I did have a garage).
Is this April first?