There are a number of pilot implementations on smart access for providing services for the last mile for eCommerce.   These include DHL having access to your vehicle by means of a smart access code to your car locks in order to leave a package you ordered in the trunk (boot for my British friends), working together with Audi and Amazon to create a trial service for Audi users. Volvo has also started addressing this area.

The audit ability of who has had access to your vehicle, particularly from an auto insurance perspective, would be a concern as to know who exactly has been in the vehicle in case of theft of personal objects of value.   However, there is a trend for your vehicle to be more of a storage facility than just a transport option, as discussed here.   Personally, while moving house recently, my car became a storage locker as well!

Those of us who are used to having house cleaning services know the dilemma of giving someone access to your home without your presence.   Anyone who has rented out part of their home for AirBnB has had to deal with this issue.

The latest pilot that caught my eye was in Sweden, where a combination of postal courier and grocery stores are testing a service that stocks your refrigerator while you are not home, so you can come home to a fully stocked kitchen.  PostNord is running this pilot with 20 homes in Sweden.

Here you would have to have a smart lock installed on your home which can be opened with the smart phone app of the courier service.   The company that has created this lock is called Glue AB and it allows residents to decide remotely who to give access to their homes.    You can see the video on the project here.

Is “in-fridge” delivery the next wave of on-demand commerce services?  Will this encourage people to think differently when it comes to opening up their homes (cars, or other personally owned objects) for convenience services?    Will access control to your home, intelligent alerts and secure encrypted technology give you greater peace of mind as Glue states on its homepage?

I think the audit ability (again insurance and theft/damage) with immutability would be useful, and could easily be tracked and audited not only for damage, but for performance (e.g. number of hours house cleaner worked, correlated to access to the home).  Can this be tied to the objects themselves, with an IoT component?

Smart access is a growing trend that I will continue to be examining and discussing in the coming months.