Right now Google has a plan for self-driving vehicles in the form of cars, but what’s next? According to a patent discovered by Qz (via 9to5Google), it seems the next big thing Google wants to look at could be self-driving delivery trucks. These trucks would be able to make deliveries and allow users to collect their packages.The patent reads, “Package delivery platform. An autonomous road vehicle is operative to receive destination information, and to drive to a destination based on the destination information. A package securing subsystem is attached to the autonomous road vehicle and comprises at least one securable compartment.”
Users will then be able to access these compartments by identifying themselves using their credit cards, NFC, or through a code. In a way it sounds like Google is combining various ideas together, like Amazon’s drone delivery program and also their pickup lockers, except that in this case it would be a self-driving truck that lets you collect your own parcels.
It would also have an advantage over drones in the sense that it could probably make deliveries that are further away. That being said, note that this is just a patent and we have no way of knowing if this is an idea Google is serious about exploring, or just one of the many ideas that Google has tossed around in the office, but what do you guys think?
Filed in . Read more about Google, Patent and Self-Driving Cars.