Amazon is reportedly developing a doorbell that could give delivery drivers

Two things i don’t like in those products.

  1. give delivery drivers access to their car’s trunk so a package can be securely left behind

What about people that have pick-ups or have cars with direct access to the rest of the car (example: corvette, SUV or any late model sedan where the back seat is able to be pushed in from the trunk) or if you park in a garage and it will typically have direct access to the house?

  1. Amazon is developing a smart doorbell device that could give delivery drivers one-time access to a person’s home to drop off a package

Yea that is not going to happen, at least for me.

Walmart just introduced a program to have deliveries dropped off in your kitchen even when you’re not home. No way would I give access to amazon or walmart drivers to my house. It’s funny how people complain about security breaches (ie Equifax among others) that are beyond their control yet would allow a total stranger to enter their house when no one is there.

Edited to add: I read the comments under the article after I made my reply here. The comments reflect what I said.

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I definitely would not use it to let a delivery person in my home, but I would think it would operate like other door bell cams and won’t just be for delivery purposes I hope. If this product actually becomes available.


Walmart in a blog post said homeowners are "in control of the experience the entire time"
Unless you’re there you are not really in control of anything.

If you have a home security camera, you can "watch the delivery take place in real-time … or view a recording of it any time through the August app,"
Not everybody has cameras in their homes. You have to get a certain app to watch also.

It’s a bad idea. Unless you don’t care about home security.

And surprisingly the comments on that article are very similar to the the Amazon one.

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Walmart version is available already in Silicon Valley.

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The folks Amazon contracts out to deliver Amazon Logistics in my area are not the folks I’d let into my house, for any reason whatsoever. In my experiences with them, they’re careless, rude, inconsiderate, and generally terrible people getting paid pennies on the dollar compared to the friendly UPS/FedEx delivery people in my area. They hate their job and make sure you and your packages know that (assuming they actually deliver them and don’t steal them). My Arlos have caught them throwing packages from great distances.

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I’m not for these at all. Very bad idea and it’s mostly people giving up security for convenience.

But to play devil’s advocate, I can think of one situation that this could be helpful. If the person is home bound or has other limits that may restrict them for whatever reason (health, ankle bracelet, etc), then having a delivery driver drop things off inside the home could be beneficial to them. As long as they are home and in control of the situation and not giving free reign to a total stranger while they are not home.

As someone who is mostly homebound, I can tell you that we tend to be even more cautious about who we let into the house. :wink:

While I do use a lot of delivery services, I have a table and a chest on the front porch where drivers can leave packages. And a camera that records the area and a sign that says there’s a camera in place. :eye:

It doesn’t solve all the problems, but for me it’s a much better solution then just letting somebody into the house.

JMO…

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I see this as a sign that Amazon may possibly create a stand alone security camera, and even their own home monitoring platform/system in the future.

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Also if this product was created, I assume it would integrate with the Echo Plus, Show, and Spot in some way, maybe Fire TV as well.

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Granted these are super expensive (and there are a few companies doing this) but wouldn’t a locking box outside your home be better?

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The big lockboxes look like good ideas, but I have a friend who got one and she says the drivers never use it, they just leave the packages leaning up against the box. :confounded:

Yeah, I’m thinking some kind of echo spot outdoors has to be on the timeline. Although I could be wrong on that, because you wouldn’t really want voice in an outdoor unit in most cases. Maybe they’ll just stick with their existing camera integrations and expand those.

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Yeah - they don’t even knock or ring the doorbell either most of time. Lazy drivers. You would think Amazon itself would have a box just to save some $ in theft replacement.

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Yeah, that would make sense.

We’re lucky, all the regular route drivers in our neighborhood are great: USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL. It’s just the Amazon logistics drivers that are a problem, and it seems to be mostly because they don’t have regular routes so it’s always somebody new. :worried:

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Gaaahhh!

I have an attached garage that has no entry to the house. The back door of the garage does not lock. (Someone wants to steal my rake or BBQ grills? Go ahead lol)

With every single delivery, I request they make it in the back door of the garage. To protect from prying eyes, as well as from weather.

IT NEVER HAPPENS.

Every delivery is sitting on my front stoop. It’s a damn good thing my neighborhood is as safe and out of the way as it is.

So I don’t see where this doorbell is going to matter. Unless Amazon is thinking of doing its very own delivery services, and abandoning UPS and FedEx.

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They already do - it’s called Amazon Logistics and it’s horrible. Search Google for that and you’ll see it’s 100% nightmares. Further, it has no 3rd party tracking, so status is only available in the Amazon app or website.

As someone who gets about 2 out of 5 packages shipped via AMZL, it’s truly horrific. I’ll try to dig up my Arlo video of one of their drivers throwing my HDD, and you can actually hear it bouncing on my porch.

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A friend of mine used to work for UPS. They are no better. He talks about how rough they handled the packages. They would have throwing contests basically.

Don’t doubt that, but at least my local UPS/FedEx drivers are friendly and handle the packages with respect, from the truck to my door anyway. :joy:

Edit: As promised, Amazon Logistics delivering a hard drive. https://youtu.be/T8Qfn44Nqr8