Self-driving cars, is anyone else getting really tired of hearing about these things?

We know that Amazon have some business ideas, which include delivering to high-rise buildings (HERE) and a 30-minute to your door delivery service (HERE), but it looks like Google are switching things up with their own game changer.

Mashable carries this:

…a recent patent awarded to Google for an “autonomous delivery platform” hints it might have other aspirations for its self-driving tech.

The thing appears to be a rolling set of secured lockers. The idea is that Google would drive a delivery to a customer, the customer would come out to the truck and unlock their delivery locker with either a code, credit card or Near Field Communication (NFC) reader, which your smartphone likely already has. After the customer retrieves their item, the truck would drive off to the next spot.

The delivery truck is a clear shot across the bow to Amazon’s delivery drone plan. Although certainly science-fiction-y, people are much more accustomed to seeing delivery trucks rolling around than they are seeing drones flying overhead. So, by that fact alone, the Google autonomous trucks have that going for them.

Shame, all those hard-working porn script writers are going to have come up with an opening scene other than ‘delivery man arrives with large package’.

[source:mashable]