Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Cars
  3. News

Packages can now be delivered directly to your car with Daimler’s Smart ‘Ready to Drop’

By

daimler smart ready to drop
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Next up, package delivery to your car. Daimler AG is focused on finding ways to make people’s vehicular lives easier. The company’s newest test program, Smart Ready to Drop, starts this month in Stuttgart. Specially equipped Smart cars can now receive parcels for customers, according to Daimler.

The purpose of the Ready to Drop program is to help online shoppers save time. Four components involved in the program include properly equipped Smart cars, online retailers enrolled in the program, people who own the configured Smart cars and shop online, and a delivery service.

Recommended Videos

The last and current generation Smart Fortwo and Fourfour cars can be retrofitted with a special Connectivity Box for the Ready to Drop program. Starting this fall, Smart buyers will be able to specify the Connectivity Kit as an option.

Related

Online retailers Amazon, Allyouneed Fresh, and Fashion ID have already signed on for the program, according to Daimler. Deliveries in the Ready to Drop program are made by the DHL parcel service.

Here’s how it works. When a shopper in the program makes an online purchase from an enrolled online retailer, they specify their Smart car as the delivery address via a smartphone application. A delivery transaction number is generated during the online checkout process.

The shopper then parks the car near their home address. Cars cannot be parked in a garage because the delivery service will not be able to find them.

DHL delivery personnel will drive to the car’s location, use the transaction code on a smartphone app to unlock the car’s luggage compartment, and put the parcel in the compartment. Finally, the driver uses the same code to lock the trunk again. The delivery driver cannot finish the delivery transaction process until the trunk is re-locked.

For the first few months, the test will be confined to Stuttgart, but then will expand to Berlin and Cologne. Other cities will follow. Smart owners in Stuttgart, Berlin, and Cologne who’d like to participate in the Smart Ready to Drop program can get more information here.

According to Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Dr. Dieter Zetsche, “We are working intensively on the question of how cars can help make people’s lives easier. If the car receives parcels customers have more time to do things they really enjoy.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown
Contributing Editor
Digital Trends Contributing Editor Bruce Brown is a member of the Smart Homes and Commerce teams. Bruce uses smart devices…
Mercedes G580 electrifies an off-road icon
Mercedes-Benz G580 with EQ Technology front quarter.

The Mercedes-Benz G-Class is Germany’s answer to Jeep, Hummer, and Land Rover. Combining traditional Mercedes luxury with serious off-road capability, the G-Class, or Geländewagen, as it’s formally known, is right at home on the trail or the valet stand. And now it’s going electric.

Mercedes has been teasing an electric G-Class since 2021, and now it’s finally arrived in the form of the G580 with EQ Technology. Expected to go on sale in the U.S.as a 2025 model alongside refreshed gasoline G-Class variants, it uses electric powertrain tech to update a classic design and enhance off-road capability.

Read more
Lamborghini’s Urus SE plug-in hybrid tries to do it all
Lamborghini Urus SE front quarter.

Lamborghini built its reputation with outrageous supercars like the Miura, Countach, and Diablo, but today its bestseller is the Urus SUV. And a new plug-in hybrid version of that car could make or break the automaker’s push to hybridize its entire lineup by the end of 2024.

Debuting at the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, the Lamborghini Urus SE is the automaker’s second plug-in hybrid, following the Revuelto supercar unveiled in 2023, and precedes a plug-in hybrid replacement for the Huracán, which will be unveiled later this year.

Read more
Fake engine noises in electric cars need to die
Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally driving on a dirt road.

You finally get that notification that the electric car you ordered months ago is ready for pickup. You get to the location, sit in the car and turn it on. Pulling out into the road, you hear something -- a strange noise you didn't quite expect. You expected the sweet quietness of a full electric vehicle. But is that ... engine noise?

It is and it isn't. As humans, we've been so used to the sound of an engine for so long that carmakers think we've associated that low-frequency rumble with performance and quality. So, what are they doing? That's right -- they're pumping fake engine noises through the speakers in your electric car.

Read more