Story highlights
Volvo's Roam service will deliver products to the trunks of customers' cars
They believe the venture will avoid frustrating time spent waiting at home for packages to be delivered
Customers will make purchases online and then give the company digital keys, granting them access to the car trunk
In the digital age, consumers expect more and more from their cars, and all brands are pushing the technological envelope. Swedish car company, Volvo, is hoping to deliver on the driver’s expectations, adding an option that’s far beyond anything that’s under the hood.
Klas Bendrik, CIO of Volvo Car Group, is one of the brains behind the Roam delivery service, which aims to make e-shopping and deliveries more convenient.
CNN: How does Roam work?
Klars Bendrik: How it would work is that a customer, via an online store, places a purchase then chooses the car as the delivery point. Then the transportation company gets the opportunity to deliver the goods directly to the vehicle and via a digital key, the transportation company is granted access to the customer’s vehicle. When the delivery has been made, the customer gets a confirmation back that the delivery has been done.
CNN: How will you allay customer safety fears in giving complete strangers access to their vehicle?
KB: When it comes to safety and security, this is very important to us within Volvo cars. That goes for physical safety as well as virtual safety, so in this we’re working heavily with digital keys and digital certificates in order to ensure security for our customers. The customer grants that the delivery can be made and then gets the confirmation back once the delivery has been made, and that specific digital key ceases to exist.
CNN: What challenges have there been in orchestrating this venture?
KB: One of the biggest challenges has been that Volvo is only one part of the delivery chain with online shoppers. There’s transportation companies, our customers and our vehicles, and bringing those aspects together has been one of the most challenging part.
CNN: What are the benefits of using Roam?
If you take the example of consumers, online shopping is one of the areas where consumers can save time, money, and also add convenience to their lives. One of the challenges with online shopping is actually the delivery. When the delivery is supposed to be made, for example to homes, or in suburban areas, that becomes a hassle; because the owner of the house is working, out of town and the delivery is sometimes bouncing.
So the delivery company usually tries to make the delivery not only once, maybe twice, even three times. The Roam delivery service actually adds convenience and simplicity both for the customers and as well as for the distribution companies. The challenge now [is] to perfect the concept and get delivery companies to buy into the innovation.
CNN: What effects will the service have on the automotive industry?
What we see today is that the car becomes connected, the customer becomes connected, that actually means that the car is part of the digital ecosystem and is integrated in the network society. And that has the opportunity to add additional services, connected services, to us as a society and also to us owners of the vehicle. And this is an area where we can see a rapid change within the automotive industry.
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